The Laughing Man Trials
by AmaranthaAmy
Summary: A year after a horrible car bombing Amy Briggs is starting her life over in a new town as she tries to make friends and deal with her aunt. While she adjusts to her new life trying to leave her old one behind Amy stumbles into a game of horrors, betrayals and traumas no teen should have to deal with and the dark shadow from the past that threatens her life. Welcome to Laughing Man.
1. Prologue: Drowning in the Deep

**Prologue**

Darkness, no matter what direction I looked that's all I could see, darkness, but it didn't matter anyway I had no need for light. I didn't want anyone to see me as I held back my tears. I never, cried I had to be the little trooper my dad raised me to be, but I felt so small, like I was 5 years old again.

"Hey, kimi?" a girl called to me from somewhere in the darkness. I ignored her still focusing on pushing down my feelings.

"Hey, hey kimi, why are you crying?" she asked. I scrubbed my hand across my cheeks to check for tears, thankfully they were still dry.

"I'm not crying," I shouted.

"Really it doesn't look that way to me,"

"I'm not! I'm just…sad, now leave me alone," I whined crouching down into a ball, I folded my arms over my knees.

"Sad? Sad about what?" she asked, with the hint of a laugh in her voice.

"Nothing now could you go away!" I shouted and then held my breath in a despite attempt to hold back my tears.

"Hey you're in my home if you want to be alone then you leave," now, she sounded annoyed.

"I can't leave there's nothing but darkness here and I don't know the way out," even if I did I had nowhere to go. Besides it was comfortable here in the darkness well it would be if she would just leave me alone!

"The way out is deciding to leave. You're here because you want to be, we both know it. You have problems you're not dealing with, and until you start dealing with them you'll just be stuck here… with me… bugging you. So, what's your problem?" she asked seeing right through me. I sighed hesitant.

"I've lost everything and now I'm all alone," I finally whispered, pathetically.

"Hm?" she asked.

"A bomb… there was a bomb in my parent's car. My parents took my brother and me on a trip to celebrate me getting into Imperial academy an exclusive performing arts school. I'd been working my whole life to get in. My dad took us for a drive through the mountains to see the leaves changing. I got out to gather some leave so I could press them… to commemorate the moment. I got about 10 feet away my mom started to call me back when the bomb went off," I held my breath again. Yes I remembered that day very clearly. The deafening sound of the blast that threw me across the ground wrapping my body around a tree. The sickening sound of my bones breaking and worse the sight of three bodies burning.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed covering my eyes I couldn't help it and even though it was dark I could still see it.

"Whoa, whoa what's your problem?" she said actually sounding concerned.

"What's my problem!?" I had meant to sound angry but my voice shook making me sound even more childlike.

"Yeah you just started flipping out," she said putting a hand on my head. "Hm you really got it ruff huh, but is the sorrow so bad that it's worth dying for," she asked.

"Maybe," I said in a pout. "I have nothing left to live for," I said and it was true my hopes dreams and family had all been destroyed blown away by that bomb.

"No I guess you don't," she said casually. "But you could, if you stay here and drown in your despair you'll hurt forever. Never moving, you'll be trapper here being eaten away by your loss… but if you get up and move forward couldn't you be that strong little trooper your dad loved." That struck a nerve.

"What do you know!" I yelled. Feeling a fire ignite in me.

"I know you Amy," She said in a warm voice. "I know that you loved to play in the rain when you were little. When you were six you tried to sell your little brother to your neighbor. You were raised with a strong since of justice, and the thing you hate the most is letting down those who believe in you like your dad and your friends so stop being weak standup and face reality Amy," she said, and I felt like the pressure on my chest was released. She was right nothing was going to be solved by me sitting here, I had to move forward.

As soon as I thought that my feet started to sink into the floor. "That a girl," she said happily to me and for the first time since entering this place I could see something. A teenaged girl maybe a little older than me with short raven hair and a-are those horns and little devil wings!? She had green eyes and a spiked purple collar. The word staff labeled a gold crown on her tank top and she had purple and black jeans on.

"What's going on," I yelled up to her as I reached out to for help.

"You're starting to move on from your problems so you're moving on from this place," she said as she watched me sink.

"Wait! Who are you, and what is this place?" I shouted in a panic as I sunk faster.

"This place is the pit of despair a place where the broken come to rot away… and me I'm just your friendly usher here to nudge people like you to the place you're supposed to be. You can call me ChiNoMiko," she said as she waved goodbye.

"Wait, wait" the floor had almost swallowed me completely.

"Don't worry Amy we'll meet again and when we do I'll answer all your questions then," she said then turned around and walked away.

That was the dream I had just before waking up from my coma and continued to have every day afterwards.


	2. Chapter 1: The Never Ending Day

For all changes in Falling Slowly please visit my account page 

**Chapter 1**

I awoke to my aunt Agatha timidly knocking at my door and the muted whisper of my alarm clock. "Amy?" she asked through the door but I wasn't really listening I had the strange feeling I was forgetting something… something important, from my dream… what did I dream about? "Amy, Amy Are you awake" I lifted my head up from my mattress, for some reason my pillow was gone.

"Yeah I'm up, I've been up for hours," I yawned sleepily. "Just trying to find the perfect thing to wear, you know how that goes," I told her laying my head back down on the mattress and felt around on the floor for my pillow.

"Good we only have fifteen minutes before we have to leave so come down soon for breakfast," she told me before she left.

"Okay," I called out to her with another yawn and, finally, I found my pillow but when I lifted it up the full force of my alarm hit me. "I'm up!" I yelled as I fumbled on the floor for my alarm clock. "6:48! How did it get so late," I asked myself as I ran to the bathroom tripping over every one of the many moving boxes scattered all over my floor.

Oh god, I looked horrible half my face was covered in slobber and underneath, it was so red, and so were my eyes! My hair was a tangles mess and I hadn't even showered yet, so I probably smelled as bad as I looked. Great, what a day to over sleep. I started washing my face and brushed my teeth at the same time, a weird skill I had picked up from many late mornings… in my previous life. Once you get over the taste of facial cleanser in your mouth it's not that hard.

After rinsing down my face and mouth I awkwardly ran back to my room to tackle my hair, cringing in pain when I stubbed my toe on yet another moving box. I hopped on my good foot to my closet where I had a full length mirror. It took me all of two seconds to realize that my hair was a lost cause I quickly threw it into a neat ballerina bun, and dowsed myself in air freshener. I turned to my pile of boxes labeled clothes and quickly turned away. There was no way I was gonna find anything acceptable to wear now. So with a heavy heart, I went into my carryon bag and pulled out a uniform still wrapped in plastic. The Imperial Academy of performing arts uniform, I never thought I would wear it especially like this. "Well I guess it's better than my street clothes, and Sweet Amoris never did send me a uniform," I murmured to myself as I slipped it on. I popped in some drops to clear my eyes, took one last glance in the mirror and down the stairs. "I'm ready," I said as I plucked up a piece of toast. "How do I look," I asked twirling on my good leg.

"Good… but aren't you missing something," she asked. Shoes, skirt, and shirt, no, I was fully dressed.

"Ah my book bag thanks I almost forgot," I said quickly as I tried to pass her I knew by looking at her what I had forgotten now. "Well we should get going," I was so close to slipping past but she grabbed my arm.

"Amy your knee brace," she said trying to sound authoritative. Ugh I hated that stupid knee brace it was huge and clunky going from the top of my thigh to my ankle. How was that a knee brace? It had huge straps and buckles no way could I make any friends wearing that thing I'd look like a complete idiot.

"Auntie I don't need that thing anymore I'm doing great in physical therapy and my doctor says I'll only need the brace while doing strenuous activity. I'm going to school we'll be sitting most of the time so really I don't need it at all," I babbled trying to slip out again but this time she blocked my path big clunky brace in hand. Ugh.

It was a long ride to school well not literally- honestly it took like five minutes- but it felt like forever, as I applied and reapplied my makeup. "How does this look?" I asked for the hundredth time.

"You look beautiful dear,"

"You didn't even look," I sighed. "Ugh I look cakey," I reached for yet another makeup wipe.

"Amy stop it," auntie chided slapping my hand.

"Ow,"

"You look beautiful and you'll be fine,"

"Right," I said taking a deep breath. "I look beautiful, I'll be fine, I look beautiful I'll be fine," I said but I only lasted 2 seconds before flipping down the visor mirror and playing with my bangs. "Oh god my bangs are a mess,"

"Amy!"

"Sorry," I flipped up the mirror and fidgeted quietly in my seat. Was I acting totally crazy? Yes but this was the first time since kindergarten that I was going to be attending a school where I didn't know anyone. Its nerve wracking knowing that one wrong move and I would be forced to spend the rest of my high school years as a social recluse. I started playing with my bangs again.

"Auntie I'll be fine on my own really," I told her for the thousandth time as we sat in the parking lot outside of the school.

"Are you sure, I think I should come in with you to-"she started to say but I cut her off.

"No, no I'll be fine," I said getting out of the car. Thanks to the stupid leg brace I was already late so no one was around to see me waddle about in the dumb thing.

"Okay but remember I have work so I can't come and pick you up," she yelled, I pretended not to hear her as I walked to the school. "Take the bus, okay, don't try to walk home alone," she yelled. I quickly retreated into the courtyard of the school. Please tell me nobody heard that, I thought as I fumbled with the dumb brace this day was already a turning into a nightmare. After a few seconds of trying to get it off I gave up. I was already feeling drained and the day hadn't even started yet. I collapsed onto a bench inside a little courtyard. Ugh. I was supposed to be going to a sparkling palace floor after floor of artistic expression. The place where some of the biggest stars of all time went.

"Ha," I sighed as I looked up my new school. Sweet Amoris High School, it was 4 stories of pure misery for me. The place looked more and more prison like every second I looked at it. I repeat UGH!

I couldn't look at it anymore I buried my face in my hands and flopped over on my side. It couldn't have been for more than a few minutes that I laid there letting the morning sun watch over me feeling the cool breeze brush my cheeks and just for a few minutes I pretended.

I was there, at imperial academy where I belong. My mom had just dropped me off at the tall and magnificent front gate where my gang of friends were waiting all huddled together. "AMY!" they'd squeal my name, "YOU GUYS!" I'd squeal back. Before I managed to explode out of the car my mom would wish me good luck. "Thanks," I'd say as I get out. "Your dad says good luck too," she'd call after me over her phone. "Tell him I love him," I'd call back and she'd give me a look. "And I love you too," I'd lean in the window and kiss her good bye on the cheek. "Dad keep catching those bad guys," I'd call into the phone. "Bye," I'd tell my stupid little brother who would be playing some game, his head barely sticking up from the back seat. He probably wouldn't taking so much as a glance in my direction. I'd ruffle his hair through the window and walk off to my destiny.

I was interrupted from my dreaming by the sound of rustling leaves and hushed whispers.

"Hello?" maybe I was dreaming for longer than I thought. When I got up from the bench I was feeling groggy. My voice sounded tired as I tried to call out, but no answer. Ugh I didn't like this, it felt like this nightmare just changed into a horror movie. I sat up feeling heavy. Crap I gotta get to the office. I started to pick up my things when I heard it again rustling leaves and whispers. I looked around feeling more and more uneasy. I looked around the court yard, apparently in this movie I was the idiotic character that went looking for trouble. Specifically in the creepy bushes on the far side of the courtyard. "Hello?" I whispered as I peeked into the bush where I saw a disgusting sight. Sitting in the shadow of that building behind the bushes was a boy I think based on the tough looking leather jacket and the red skull shirt- honestly he had kinda girly hair that was the most obnoxious color of red you could think of. He was breathing deeply panting sweating moaning, and on top of him was a girl with both her green and brown shirts rolled up over her bra and her green skirt hiked up her thighs. From what I could see she had light brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore gold hoop earrings and an eyebrow piercing. They were an equally tough looking couple, and then it finally dawned on me what I was watching. I slapped my hand over my mouth before I had a chance to scream in shock and ran backwards out of the bush scrambling until I fell right on my butt.

"Oh!" I squeaked before slapping my hand over my mouth again. I froze for a second listening for any sign that they heard me. All was quiet inside of the bush. Did they hear me? After a moment of silence the rustling came back but this time it sounded like they were getting up. Oh crap I think they heard me! In one swift motion I flipped over and fighting against my knee brace hightail it out of there. I circled around the school trying every entrance until I found one that opened. "Hu," I felt so relieved I flopped up against a wall of lockers sliding down until I was on my butt. "What did I just see," I asked myself wanting to claw my eyes out. Ugh!

It was only the first hour and already I was scarred for life not to mention I just irritated my injuries. I could already feel my knee start to swell and my ribs were aching. Finally I successfully unstrapped my knee brace so that blood could circulate better, wrapped my arms around my ribs and propped my head up on my good leg. I bet this would never happen at Imperial Academy. I took a breath and turned to put my brace into my bag. "W-what," it was gone. "My book bag!" I though back to the scene I had just witnessed. I slapped my hands over my mouth. I never did grab my bag!

Crap, crap, crap, I propped myself up on the locker until I could get up on my own and with a heart heavier than when I started I limped my way down the hall. It took me about 8 tries to find the right exit to the courtyard-CURSE THIS PRISON AND IT'S MANY DOORS! But when I looked around my bag was nowhere to be found. What the heck. I was sure this was the right place I could see the parking lot if I leaned over the bench. Had they taken my book bag? If so for what? Ugh, I was starting to get a really bad feeling about this. Forgetting the pain in my knee I started sprinting around the school, fighting my way through bushes stumbling over rocks and tree roots. No one. Great that book bag had the finished copy of my registration forms in it. I was about to give up with a sigh when I saw a navy blue blob swinging from a tree branch. Upon closer inspection it was my book bag. I ran over to grab it off the branch but when I reached up to grab it sitting a few feet up on another branch sat a boy with hair the most obnoxious color of red you could think of. In a flash the boy jumped down from the tree slapping his hand over my mouth before I had a chance to scream and firmly pinned me up against the tree. It felt like my heart stopped in that moment.

"So, you're the peeping tom huh," he said with a cocky smirk it only took about two seconds for my heart to start up again as my anger flared. I slapped his arm, chest and whatever else I could reach until he removed his hand from my mouth.

"P-peeping tom!" how dare he try to spin this and make me seem like some kind of perv. "Who are you calling a peeping tom?" I shoved him.

"Hm maybe the girl who was watching two people f***ing in the bushes like she was watching the nature channel,"

"Wha- nature channel! Well if you're gonna get all uppity about being caught then you shouldn't DOO IT outdoors like animals!"

"Uppity?" he scoffed. "Listen I don't know if you're new or just so insignificant that I haven't bothered to ever notice you but-"

"Whoa insignificant. That's a pretty big word for a ruffian," he scrunched his face at my use of the word ruffian. Ugh this was the place I would be getting my education.

"Listen you little brat,"

"Whoa," I held up my hand to his face. "My names Amy, Amy Briggs and I'm new here," I said with a little attitude as I stretched my upraised hand out to him for a handshake. He just looked at it.

"Look you little stuck up princess I don't give a crap about if you're new or what your name is, all I need is for you to forget what you just saw,"

"Oh that's quite a way to ask for a favor," seriously if I was a spiteful person I would be blabbing it all over school right now. You know if I knew who either of these people were or cared even a little bit about what I saw honestly I just wanted to forget, I wish he'd stop reminding me.

"Look this isn't a request," he said the word **request** sarcastically mocking my vocabulary. "It's a threat if you tell anyone what we were doing you could get that girl and yourself into real trouble so just keep your mouth shut got it school girl," he said with a ferocious face but for some reason that didn't bother me. It was something else he said that struck a nerve.

"What did you just call me?"

"School girl. Why you wanna fight about it,"

"What do you mean by school girl," I asked. He just looked me up and down once. I had been called quite a few names in my day but school girl didn't make since to me we were all in-

"The only other person you'll see dressed like that around here is that idiot class president," he said with a smirk. I was gonna ask what he meant until I noticed what he was wearing.

"Yo-You're not in uniform," I was so confused now and shocked I don't even know if that came out as a question or just a statement of fact. I had been so traumatized at the sight of him and the girl before and so wrapped up in our unpleasant conversation now that it had just registered in my mind what he was wearing. I had never been to a school that didn't have uniforms -even my public elementary school made us wear those ugly polo shirts- so it never occurred to me that this school wouldn't have them.

If it was true and there were no uniforms, then brace or no brace I would stick out like a sore thumb, and just like this rude guy they would all look at me as some stuck up, or nerdy, or timid little school girl.

This was the first time I would be going to a school where I knew no one, a fresh start, I wanted to make a new name for myself. I WANNA BE COOL! Not that I was unpopular in my old life I had a good group of friends, but I never had the time to enjoy it. I practiced dance 4 hour a day, I had singing lessons three times a week. When I didn't have singing lessons I had acting lessons and there was a whole list of other things that I don't even care to list. Hanging out with friends wasn't really an option for me. Well there were one or two friend that always seemed to find time in my schedule. I shuddered at the thought. This time around I had broken dreams no aspirations and I was all alone so to try and make myself feel better I wanted to try my hand at enjoying school life.

I snatched my book bag from the tree branch turned on my heels and ran straight into the school building, not bothering to look back- I heard a questioning hmm from the boy but nothing else- and with a slight limp ran right into the bathroom. Luckily all of the students were in class. I pulled my deep pink hair from its bun and took off my uniform jacket, but it was still very obvious that this was a uniform. I spent a little more time trying to brush my cowlicks down when a bell rung. Crap! I missed all of first period. I stuffed everything in my bag and rushed to the front office.

It only took like five minutes to find the office but that might as well have been eternity on my bum leg. I straightened up an inch as I got closer to the office and rushed in like I wasn't totally in pain.

"Um excuses me I'm the new student," I blurted out instantly as I barged into the office panting wildly. I was out of shape.

"Hello Amarantha-" a kinda stalky woman in a head to toe pastel pink suit started to ask in an annoyed voice but I couldn't let one thing go.

"Please just call me Amy," I corrected. I was named Amarantha because the deep pinkish purple of my hair and the pale green of my eyes reminded my mother of the Amaranthus plant, but seriously it's hard to find a girl's name that ends with a t-h-a that sounds cute Martha, Bertha, Agatha, AMARANTHA!- ok there's Samantha but it's not that cute.

"Alright… Amy then," it seems like my little outburst pissed her off more than before because even though she said polite words she said them in one of the scariest manners that I had ever heard. "Hello **Amy**, welcome to Sweet Amoris High School, I am your principal," she said slamming my schedule down on the front desk. "I hope you feel at home quickly here in your new school," she said a little less terrifyingly.

"T-Thank you ma'am," I said quickly the less time I spent talking the sooner I could get out of here.

"Here in Sweet Amoris we value punctuality and respect for adults you understand," she asked menacingly. I nodded.

"Yes,"

"Yes what,"

"Yes ma'am I'm sorry I'm late ma'am I was just… double checking the registration information we e-mailed you. I heard that my aunt had forgotten some things," I started fiddling around with a loose thread on my new uniform as an excuse to look away.

"Ah yes, we worked with what she sent us… if we didn't you would have missed too many days to be eligible to pass this term," she said flipping through a stack of papers. "You won' t be a fully excepted student until it's all turned in so on your free period go see Nathaniel, he's the student body president, but he also works in the office as an elective have him check over your registration papers for completion. We don't want any mistakes this time," she smiled insultingly. "He'll be in the student council room it's by the courtyard entrance," she said passing me back the stack of papers.

"Courtyard got it," I said and sped off to find my second period.

"Hello my name is Amy Briggs and I'm new here. No to formal. Hello I'm- Hi I'm Amy nice to meet you all," I was practicing my introduction for second period while I waited for the teacher to get me when-

"Amy my love I've finally found you!" I heard the most horrible sound anyone has ever heard since humans grew ears and as I looked over to confirm my worst nightmare there he was all glasses and bowl cut hair flying at me.

"Ke-Ken!?" I asked as the little nerd I had known since kindergarten came up to me. No this was not possible I had told no one where I was, of where I was going how, HOW! NO this wasn't happening. I'm gonna close my eyes take a deep breath and look over and there will be no Ken. I looked over. "You?! What are you doing here?!" I asked kind of rudely. I didn't mean to and it hurt my heart to see his little face fall in disappointment.

"Well I couldn't get into Imperial academy and I heard you weren't there anyway a-and I called your house no answer so I've just been transferring from school to school till I found you!" Yeah he actually sounded proud like this was something any sane person would do can you believe it! He wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace and of course the teacher just had to open the door.

Why do I have no luck? Everyone was laughing. "Aw look at the two nerd birds all cozy," one girl, with long blonde hair, a smug unfriendly smile, and expensive clothes, said as I broke out of Kens hug. I went straight to the first seat I saw at the back no introduction. I didn't want to give any of these people a name for them to spread this story about.

As class started the teacher droning on about god knows what I thought about Ken. That creepy over-obsessive stalker wasn't always like this -well kinda but not as obsessive... well kinda but- when we first met, he was a new kid being bullied on the playground when I intervened –I lost two baby teeth that day and almost got expelled for fighting- but it was the right thing to do. He had been my best friend since then we did everything together he's the only friend I spent any time with and we had fun times-that's right Ken was the one friend that always seemed to find time in my schedule. Then he realized that he loved me. Valentine's Day sixth grade Ken decorated the whole classroom in hearts and pictures of me, ugh, he put a six foot tall heart shaped card on my desk try riding the bus with that in your lap. That was the second time I almost got expelled for fighting. Since then he has made bigger and more extravagant events that embarrassed me to the point of extreme mortification. "No not again," I yelled and everyone looked back at me. "Miss," the teacher said in a stern voice and I heard laughs from all around but the one coming from beside me sounded familiar. It was the red haired boy from before. He was sitting right there smug smirk on his face.

"It might have been worth sitting through this boring class to see a show like this school girl," he told me and I almost lost it. "Stop calling me school girl!" Ok I lost it a little. "Miss one more outburst and," the teacher started to say when the bell rang and I rushed out of the room to avoid him and Ken.

After that the next class was history where the teacher practically killed me with his boring lecture and weighed me down with his heavy text book and basically a full two inch binder full of printouts. I flipped through page after page of these notes checking for anything that I didn't know already. Nothing. After about 15 minutes I couldn't focus on history anymore my mind started to drift to my social life. How in the heck did people make friends? When we were kids it was so easy so effortless, but now… HOW IN THE HECK DO I MAKE FRIENDS! It's not as if people around here were very welcoming to me either. No one but that red headed jerk and ken had so much as talked to me since I arrived and I was having a hard time finding the courage to talk to them either. Oh no please don't let it just be me and Ken hanging out for the rest of my high school years. I looked around the classroom bored when I locked eyes with a girl sitting on the other side of the classroom. My first was to smile kindly and try to make a friend but as I looked at her the light brown hair the brow piercing brown tank layered over the green shirt. She was the girl that red haired butt was doing in the bushes. I looked away instantly feeling my face flush red. Oh gosh that was suspicious wasn't it I peeked back up at the girl her once blank face was now scowling at me murderously.

"How about you Ms. Charlotte," the teacher called from the front of the classroom. The girl turned to look at him.

"I don't know," she said calmly. I would have been a frantic mess if a teacher called on me when I wasn't-

"Well how about our new student," aw c'mon.

"Uh w-what was the question sir," he just shook his head disappointed and continued on teaching. For the rest of class I kept my head shoved in that book. The second the bell rang I had intended to flee from the room for my life but instead the second I gathered my books and jumped up from my desk I ran straight into someone knocking my stuff out of my hands papers flying everywhere.

"Oh! I'm sorry," the boy and I said in unison. When I looked up at him I was chocked or maybe amazed is a better word for it. The guy was so… so uniquely… beautiful. He was pretty tall but I guess everyone is pretty tall next to me only being 5'2. But not just that his hair was cut in an asymmetrical style that was a beautiful pure white with dark black tips. His face was slim but not thin with eyes that were two different colors, one green the other an almost gold color. What was even more interesting was that he wore garments from like the 1700 century. As I stood there frozen by his beauty the boy slowly bent down and started picking up our mess. It took a minute for my brain to start working again.

"Uh you can just leave that I'll get it," I said quickly fumbling to pick up the papers as everyone else walked around us.

"No here-"

"Great to see you're screwing up here too school girl," someone said with a laugh, and I knew just who too. I turned around to see the obnoxious red head.

"Castiel, what are you doing here," the pretty boy asked. I just fumed silently behind him as I picked up the rest of my papers.

"Just seeing if you want to skip next period and take an extra-long lunch," that boy Castiel smirked.

"No I misplaced my notebook… I want to stay and find it," pretty boy sighed deep in thought his voice was as beautiful as he was.

"Fine but-" I tuned them out as I focused on separating my stuff from his. If he's friends with people like that then I'm guessing that this pretty boy is no good either.

"Here," I gave the pretty boy his thing a little rudely I have to admit.

"Oh I'm sorry to have left all the work to you,"

"It's ok," I said again a little rudely and without thinking I spun on my bad leg feeling a sharp pain shoot through it. "Ah!" I squeaked stumbling a few steps.

"Hey you okay," the red head Castiel asked.

"Yeah I'm fine," I said looking at the floor.

"You sure it-"

"I'M FINE!" I said and stormed off. Ignoring my re-aggravated injury.

I stormed out into the hall before I could remember where I was going, so I had to dig into my pocket for my schedule. Gym was next. Great.

"Ah Miss Briggs just who we were looking for," my math teacher, whose name I hadn't really bothered to learn yet, called with a sour faced woman trailing behind him.

"Oh so you're Amarantha Briggs,"

"I go by Amy," I said extending my hand.

"Oh I wouldn't know since you never showed up for my class this morning," she said and I dropped my hand.

"Oh sorry, I had a bit of an emergency this morning."

"Oh I didn't realize that running around the school constituted as an emergency," Busted. My second period teacher cleared his throat.

"Anyway I forgot to give you your textbook for the class,"

"Yes and this is my textbook and the reading material you'll need for the rest of the year," my first period teacher chimed in handing me 4 more books on top of the textbook.

"Ah thank you," yeah thanks a lot the books weighed a ton each and adding the history book I already had in hand and all my catchup notes I'm surprised I was still upright. I wobbled away on my bad knee. Curse these stinki'n books. I was fumbling with them when I bumped into someone.

"Whoa," they said trying to catch my books but some slipped to the ground. "Are you okay?" he asked looking over at me.

"Yeah thanks," I told him nervously. This boy was quite handsome too, tall, he had delicate features, with blonde hair and eyes to match. What really got me was his dress shirt and tie. NOT THAT I'M ATTRACTED TO GUYS THE ALWAYS DRESS FORMALLY! In fact it was kinda weird when you looked around at all the other students but it made me feel a little more at ease in my uniform now that someone else was dressed up. I kinda felt like we were in our own little matching club. "u-um excuse me but-" I was gonna ask him if he knew where the gym was when I slipped on one of my fallen books and practically tackled him to the ground. Books flying everywhere.

"AHAHAHA!" I could hear someone laugh just a little ways down the hall, and I didn't have to look up to see who. Castiel. His voice was growing more and more familiar to me.

"O~uch!" the boy I had just assaulted said holding his head. I would have apologized right away but I was wrapped up in my own pain. I had twisted my bad knee even worse and it was swelling rapidly. "Hey are you okay!" the boy said alarmed. When he saw me holding my swollen knee he immediately jumped up "I'll get the nurse," he started to turn.

"NO! no I'm fine!" I said staggering to my feet just to crumple like a ton of bricks, but he was there to catch me.

"Amy you're not okay!" He scooped me up in his arms.

"W-What are you doing," I asked in a panic.

"Getting you to the nurse," he said as if it was obvious. "And if you're not going to sit and wait for her to come to you then I'll bring you to her," he said with a little strain in his voice as he walked down the hall. Not many people were still roaming around but the few that were made it painstakingly clear that they were watching. Oh UGH!

"Wait no I'm fine," I said trying to kick out of his arms but the pain was too great.

In the nurses office I had to come clean about breaking my knee and my dumb leg brace- which she made me wear again as I iced my knee. Since I had gym this period nurse Nancy recommended that I stay put in the nurse's office and sent my hero off to deliver an excuse note. Maybe this was too much for me too soon. I flopped back on one of the cots careful not to drop my ice pack. I was exhausted, so exhausted that I don't really know when I fell asleep, but it felt like only a few seconds before the nurse was waking me up for free period/lunch period and part of me was happy that I my knee was still swollen. Lunch was the time of day I dreaded the most, I hadn't really made any friends so walking through a busy cafeteria with my lunch tray looking for a place to eat wasn't ideal. So for the rest of the period I huddled in my cot munching on some chips I had in my backpack. By the time 6th period started I was feeling better. When I left the nurses office sitting outside with all the books I forgot that I even dropped in hand was the boy who carried me here looking worried. He jumped up the second he saw me.

"Uh… hi," he said shyly.

"Hi," I repeated just as shyly. "Those," I pointed to my books.

"Oh yeah these are yours," he held out my books to me and I awkwardly tried to take them but there were just too many. They started to slide everywhere and fall. Eventually the boy gave up. "I could just drop these at your next class. You still don't look to good," well thanks I thought sarcastically. He seemed to read my thought cause in an instant his face flushed red and he started apologizing. "Not that I'm saying you **look **bad or anything it's just that you don't…" he fell silent.

"Uh thanks," was all I could think as I showed him my schedule.

Honors biology, this class went smoothly. I shared it with Nathaniel- the boy who carried me to the nurse- but he already had a partner so I sat next to a chipper friendly girl named Iris… I think. I can't be sure most of the time admittedly I was stealing glances at Nathaniel and once or twice I think he was stealing glances at me too. BACK ON TOPIC: Iris was great but honestly speaking, I have no idea how she got into this class, while she was perfectly nice- I don't have anything against her- she was just a little… lost and all over the place.

"Sorry you got stuck with me," she blushed apologetically.

"What are you talking about you're great I think we could be great friends," I told her smiling. She smiled to and offered to walk me to my next class. On our way I saw my little nerd huddled in a corner looking sad. I told iris to go ahead and went over to Ken.

"What's wrong?" I asked not realizing I was there he jumped.

"Oh Amy it's nothing,"

"Doesn't look like nothing to me,"

"It's just this girl," he started to say, and before I got the chance to think he had found a new girl to obsess over he grabbed my arm. "This girl and her friends took all my money!" he blurted. Seriously he's getting beaten up by girls now. I really am worried about this boy.

"Ken are you okay,"

"Yeah it's just I had to skip lunch and-" I got my wallet out immediately.

"I have to pay for my enrollment fee so I can't give you much but it's at least enough for a snack," I told him as I handed over all the quarters and dimes I had.

"No-no I don't need it…" Ken looked at me affectionately. "I love you Amy," he hugged me quickly and left.

The rest of the day went by smoothly… well at least there weren't any more embarrassments till it was time to go home. Fumbling with my books my brace and my exhaustion made me late getting out of the school. Just late enough to watch the bus I needed to get on drive by… great. Feeling even more weighed down by this stupid day I adjusted my now full and heavy book bag pulled the books that didn't fit in my book bag close and with my head hanging low I turn the corner to start walking home.

"Didn't your mommy tell you not to walk home?" I heard Castiel say behind me with a laugh. A couple of onlookers giggled.

"H-hey you heard that?" oh crap why. He smiled seeing my panic, hmph. "And yet you still didn't stop what you were doing,"

"You're the one peeking into bushes," he said angry. We could continue this fight all day and get nowhere so I decided to go to another subject.

"Anyway that wasn't my mom and I missed the bus," I said waddling away. "And I'm not gonna sit around and have people gawk at me in this thing," I murmured quietly looking down at my brace.

"…Here I'll show you somewhere more private to wait," he said pulling me back the arm.

"Wha- eep,"

We ended up on the roof of the school. "Once the bus hits that corner you should start heading down," he told me. Surprisingly enough despite his moody disposition Castiel was really nice and despite the kinda girly hair and… annoying remarks he was pretty handsome too.

"Why are you helping me?" I never meant to ask but the words just seemed to fall out of my mouth. He didn't answer. "Well if you're a fan of, Winged Skulls, I guess you can't be all bad," I said looking at his shirt, he looked at me surprised.

"The little school girl knows about rock music?" he asked sarcastically.

"They have pretty decent albums," I told him looking back out at the street for the next bus.

"Pretty decent? They're one of fastest growing indie bands of this decade," he said sounding a little insulted.

"Yeah but that's the problem they're starting to get too commercial now. That new album sounds so much more like a pop song it kinda made me pissed,"

"Hmm true a few songs sounded like pop but most of their songs are still good," he and I argued back and forth about the pros and cons of Winged Skulls last album and eventually went on to comparing our favorite indie bands. We had spent almost 2 hours sitting up on the roof talking.

"I'm just saying the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are pretty good but you can't let them be your only reference for Visual K music you gotta branch out a little," I told him.

"Please the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are the only good band in that genre the rest of it is just senseless noise,"

"Blasphemy! It's a really good genre, you just have to give it a chance!" I whined

"No thanks," he said as he walked me to the bus stop. "… So…what's up with your leg?" he pointed to the brace.

"Not much yours," I said sarcastically. He didn't seem to like my humor.

"WHATS UP WITH THE BRACE," he asked pointedly, and I know that I have said this about a hundred times today and this was going to be the hundred and first time but UGH!

With the new kinship I was feeling with Castiel I kinda felt guilty about lying about what happened to me, but I couldn't tell him or anyone about the truth. It's weird my family died a year ago and I knew that but somehow saying it out loud physically speaking the words made me feel like it would make it realer. It didn't make since logically but sometimes I felt like I would wake up in my bed at home with my mom making pancakes down stares with the phone mashed up between her shoulder and her face, talking to aunt Aggie. My dad heading off to work early from some urgent call. My brother sitting at the table half asleep. My normal life. Saying what happened to me… to us seemed to make it final, shutting the door on my fantasy of them coming back.

"…Whatever," Castiel said. I had hesitated for so long I guess that he got that I didn't want to talk about it. At that moment the next bus pulled up.

"Well see you later," I told him getting on the bus.

"Yeah, see you," he said as he walked away.

I walked into the empty apartment. The echo of silence was new to me and after finishing like a week's worth of homework I did busy work like unpacking my boxes. We had moved in a month ago but still not very much had gotten unpacked. I started with my room pulling out my clothes and organizing them into what I could wear to cover my brace best and what would have to wait till I got out of the stupid thing. I straightened up my desk placing my new school books in place neatly. Lastly I hung my fairy lights all the photos I could stand to look at and any other decoration that aunty had picked out for me before I ran out of things to do. Then when I couldn't stand to sit still anymore I started to do the rest of the house, I started in the living room picking out rugs and hanging curtains to match. I even moved furniture though my knee begged me not to. Once that was done I slumped over the couch to look at my handy work. Somehow the pea green carpet and drapes matched the bright orange couch and the deep red wood of the coffee table. This place was finally starting to look like people lived here. When all the boxes were unpacked, and I was totally exhausted, the sun was just setting and it was still too soon to fall asleep. I had run out of stuff to do. Yeah I was keeping busy for a reason. Aunt Aggie worked odd hours. For a fashion company that just moved overseas she did most of her work on a laptop but since I was on the mend she was back to working at a branch that was close by, from the time they closed till like 4am. I won't be seeing much of her.

For the first time since the bombing I was alone. In the hospital I was always surrounded by doctors, nurses, visiting family or even other patents. When I was bouncing from relative to relative there were usually little kids, stay at home moms, or old people that stayed home all day that I'd talk to or play with while I did online classes. This was the first time that no one was around to keep my attention thanks to that I was completely restless. I really had to find something to occupy my time.


	3. Chapter 2: A Date in the Rain

For all changes in Falling Slowly please visit my account page 

**Chapter 2**

Another late morning. I was rushing about trying to get myself together. Today I was actually wearing the dumb brace, though I hid it under a long orange empire waist dress. One last twirl and I headed down to greet aunty. "Aunt Aggie I'm ready," I yelled but no answer. I checked the living room, bathroom, kitchen and her room but nothing. I guess she's not home yet. "Oh no I'm gonna be late," I told myself. I'm just gonna have to run for it. I sprinted for the door, only to trip up on something laying in the floor. "A-Aunt Aggie?" there she was fast asleep in the middle of the floor.

"A-Aunt aggie really I can walk I'll be fine," I told her for the hundredth time. When I woke her up I had only meant so that she could go sleep on her bed, but she insisted on driving.

"No, no I can't let you walk all alone with that leg," she said in a spacy voice. I was about to protest when "Ah!" aunt Aggie screamed and slammed on the breaks. "That dog came out of nowhere," She said catching her breath and started driving again. I looked around but no dog. What was she talking about?

"Um aunt Aggie the schools just down the street so I can walk from here," I said jumping out of the car so there was no protest. I probably shouldn't have gotten out of a moving car but she was driving so slow that it was easy. "Auntie go home and get some sleep," I told her as I walked beside the car. She nodded absently.

"That dog sure did come out of nowhere," someone laughed, and I knew who it was immediately. I felt like I'd heard it almost all day yesterday.

"Why is it that every time something goes wrong your there? Are you stalking me or something?" I asked sarcastically.

"In your dreams princess," he said. He looked me up and down once and started walking. Ugh again with the nicknames, I thought as I followed behind him. We walked in silence for about a minute before things got awkward.

"Oh right you said you liked the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's right?" I asked grabbing at any hope for a conversation. This silence was killing me.

"Yeah and," that was all he said.

"We~ell I know you said that you didn't like the genre but I'm sure that if you like them you'll like these guys," I said pulling out my phone. Stealthily I popped one earphone into his left ear- ignoring him when he pulled away-and the other in my right. Okay maybe I was coming on a little strong but you have to be a little pushy when making friends right? I played a song from one of my favorite indie bands. He didn't look over or say anything, for all I knew he might not have even been listening but at the edge of his mouth it looked like there was a small smile. We continued to walk in silence but it didn't feel so weird with the music playing. Once we got to the courtyard I started to pull the headphone from his ear but he grabbed my hand. Again he didn't look at me or say anything he just stood there. My heartbeat quickened and the place where his hand touched my wrist warmed. It felt like eternity before he let me go.

"Name," he asked finally looking at me. Did he really not know my name? I mean I know we just met yesterday but seriously.

"A-Amy," I stuttered gazing deeply into his grey eyes my heartbeat quickened.

"The band's name," He smirked. Oh.

"V-Vistalip," this time the stutter was out of embarrassment, embarrassment of the temporary insanity that caused me to be mesmerized by him!

"In your dreams princess," he scoffed ruffling my hair.

"Yeah right like I'd be interested in a guy like you," I said plus he already had a girlfriend. I sighed quietly to myself, shook the thought from my head then headed inside to my first period.

"Hey you!" Someone shouted as soon as I entered the school. I turned around to see a girl with long blonde hair, green eyes, and expensive looking clothes coming at me from one of the side hallways. She was flanked by two girls, one was a girl with the eyebrow piercing and the look of not wanting to be here that was with Castiel- I think her name was Charlotte and the other was a girl I didn't know with jet black hair absent mindedly doing her makeup. "Humph so you're the new girl," the blonde said circling me like a shark. "Humph," she said again.

"Excuse me-,"

"There is only one girl for Castiel, and that's me, got it," she said shoving me against the lockers. I glanced over at Charlotte. Isn't she Castiel's girlfriend? I would expect this from her but she was just standing there in the background like this wasn't even happening. "Hey are you listening to me," the blond slammed her hand against the locker.

"Uh oh yeah, uh what," the blonde rolled her eyes exasperated. Was this a cheating situation? Two timing boyfriend and no good best friend get together behind girlfriends back. He said that charlotte would get in a lot of trouble if this got around is this what he meant.

"I said stay away from my Castiel got that!" She yelled. The way she phrased that was weird so I had to ask.

"Is he your boyfriend or something," If that's what's going on even if this girl was a total B word I couldn't not tell her what I saw. Even if she'd never believe me.

"Not yet but he will be," Okay what!? So blonde was in love with Castiel, the Castiel that I had seen just yesterday humping her friend. So is this what was going on? A secret love and if the blonde ever found out then she would definitely be in big trouble.

But as I thought of that a strange feeling flared up in me, it was an odd mix between anger and frustration. Was she really his girlfriend? I looked over Charlotte, while she looked quite tuff she didn't really look like his type. "And don't think you can get cuddly with the class president either or any of the other boys around here," she said grabbing my face to make me look at her. "You and your little nerd bird boyfriend can just keep to yourselves and stay out of my way," she said shoving me one more time. Part of me really wanted to tell her that her obstacles were a lot closer to home than she thought, but I restrained myself. Instead my mind was racing trying to find some good come back, something that said, _you don't scare me _without actually saying the words, but nothing came. "Oh and tell your boyfriend to bring more money next week with that dinky amount that he brings now it'll take me forever to save up for a new phone." The blonde said as she walked away, and for a second it froze me in place as her words registered in my mind.

It's funny how easily my claws come out cause once her words finished registering in my mind, I was ready to mark the third time I'd almost be expelled for fighting.

The girl and her friends had gotten a little ways down the hall so I sprinted after her (ignoring the pain in my leg). I was an inch away from grabbing a fist full of that long blonde hair when… I slipped. I landed flat on my face. The girls noticed me then and laughed before heading into their class.

"Ugh what did I slip on?" I asked myself as I peeled something off my shoe. It was a small notebook with some strange word written on it. "Lysander? Wonder what that means," I said putting it in my backpack. I'd bring it to lost and found later. So she was the girl who was bullying ken. I would have to deal with that later. Once I peeled myself off of the floor I had to pick up a few things that slipped out of my bag. That's when I saw it. "Oh no my registration form," I had forgotten to get it checked and turned in yesterday. "Crap," I needed to find the student body president. She said his name was what again Noah, Nicholas, Noland… no Nate, Nathen, Na-Nathaniel! That's it. I sighed in relief. Hmm I wonder if that's the Nathaniel in my science class. I took a breath and didn't concern myself with it. I had a bigger problem for the second day in a row I was missing first period.

I couldn't concentrate through any of my classes I was too worried about Ken he was a fragile little thing and I couldn't protect him from everything, but this bratty menace needed to be stopped. I had been trying to find him all day but nothing.

After history class I went wondering through the halls looking for ken again…but nothing. As I pouted on my way to gym, when out the corner of my eye I saw a familiar tuff of brown hair headed out of the school. "Ken?" I called but I guess he didn't hear me as he headed for a car and left. I was gonna call him to see what's up but the warning bell rang so I rushed off to class. Today in gym they were playing dodge ball. Of course I couldn't play and the nurse made sure that Coach Jordan knew that. So I sat on the sidelines in my gym uniform next to a shy girl with purple hair. We sat in silence watching the teams launch balls at each other yelping and squeaking when one came their way. I waited for the coach to get enthralled in the game calling "Out! Out! Out!" to pull out my phone and text ken [Hey u ok I saw u leave early ] as I hit send a dodge ball came flying out of nowhere hitting me in the side of the head it sent me flying out of my seat and my phone flying out of my hand crashing into the gym floor with a loud CRACK! Everyone and everything seemed to freeze in that moment everyone watching me with the same look of shock. Okay there were 3 people that don't look shocked at all. That blonde looked at me with a smug smile as the girl with the black hair loaded her with another dodgeball. Charlotte wore the same uninterested face she had before. I sent a quick glare their way before peeling myself up off the floor.

"Uh-Um… a-are you okkkk-ay," the shy girl asked handing me my phone. The screen was completely destroyed.

"Oh no," I ran my fingers lightly across the screen. "Ouch!" I pulled my hand back to find blood pooling from the thin cut on the tip of my finger.

"Briggs! Put it away," Coach called to me. I sat my phone face down on the bleachers and waited for this stupid class to be over.

I ate my lunch outside with Iris my lab partner and the sweet shy girl from my gym class whose name I found out was Violate.

"S-so what h-happened to your l-leg she stuttered," Violette was the first person to ask me what happened and honestly I wasn't sure what to say. Violette and Iris were sweet girls and I didn't want to lie to them but like Castiel and well everyone else I didn't want them to know the horrifying truth.

"U-uh I got into a car accident broke my leg," I told them shrugging it off. Unlike with Castiel yesterday this time I was ready. This was a half-truth not a total lie but it wasn't really all that close to the truth. They both looked at me with sympathy in their eyes. Ugh that's what I wanted to avoid sympathy and pity I didn't need it, all that did was make the heart weak. It seemed like the weather had taken on my mood cause the sky darkened and the clouds rolled in fast. "We should get inside fast," I told them in an attempt to change the subject.

Throughout the whole day I couldn't stop thinking about Ken it was so weird not seeing him I felt kind of off balance because of it. On my way out I finally realized it was raining. "Oh no," I hadn't been paying attention to the weather this morning great I'm gonna have to run for it. I took off my brace preparing to sprint, when I watched the bus I was supposed to be on pass by. Great.

"Need a hand," I heard a less familiar voice say I hadn't heard his voice as often as Castiel but I knew it was Nathaniel easily. He was standing next to me black umbrella in hand.

"I missed the bus,"

"I could walk you home… or to the bus stop at least," he said blushing.

"Well actually, Nathaniel are you also the class president?" I asked remembering the enrollment form. He nodded and I handed him my enrollment forms. "I was supposed to have you check this yesterday," I told him kind of shyly. He checked everything quickly.

"Well you have almost everything done," he told me after a minute. Wait almost?

"Almost what do you mean I checked everything myself," I asked surprised.

"Um well you'll have to pay the enrollment fee for one, and get an ID photo and one of the pages is missing," he said showing me where the pages skipped from three to five. "But that might just be a mistake on the offices part I'll check for it tomorrow," he smiled.

"Ok I have the enrollment fee but where am I supposed to get this ID photo done,"

"You can get it anywhere. They usually just take it with a web cam and a blank wall,"

"I don't have a web cam,"

"Well do you have a camera or recent picture of you with a blank wall behind you," he asked. I had been in and out of the hospital for the last year no way was I letting anyone take a picture of me. I sighed and shook my head. If I took out the amount of money needed for the enrollment fee I didn't even have enough for a disposable camera and what's cheaper than that. Then an idea hit me.

"Actually Nathaniel can you walk me somewhere," I asked it was still raining pretty hard and I wanted to look good for my picture.

"Interesting," Nathaniel said awkwardly from outside the curtain. Unlike most boys nowadays he was a true gentleman, he made sure that the umbrella covered me perfectly, he walked on the side of the sidewalk closest to the street, and even pulled back the curtain to the booth for me. As a modern woman I'd have to say that it's kinda weird and totally old school, but as a plain old girl I have to admit it gave me this warm giggly feeling inside to have a boy dote on me in the totally non-creepy excessive way (unlike ken).

"You've never been to a photo booth before?" I asked as I waited for the booth to count down.

"N-no is that weird?" he asked awkwardly. Honestly everything was awkward with Nathaniel but in a strange way it was kind of cute, and honestly he was quite the sweetie.

"Well since you're a boy I guess its ok, but your girlfriend never dragged you to one," It was a little obvious what I was doing but I was hoping that he didn't have enough experience with girls to figure it out. He paused. Did he have a girlfriend, I bet it's that skanky lab partner of his, or that skanky blonde bully that's bothering Ken. I was pouting to myself when I heard a shy, "No I'm not really dating anyone right now," he sounded a little embarrassed, but strangely it made me feel better. What was wrong with me today? This was the second time that I felt this awful pain in my chest. I was clutching my chest curious about the pain when the flash went off in the booth I looked up to see a picture of me looking lost with my hand on my chest.

"Ugh, no way am I using that one," I whispered to myself as I got ready for the next picture. This picture booth let me take a lot of pictures and choose which ones I wanted. So I didn't feel any pressure the hold a fake smile for a minute just to get some stiff picture. This gave me an idea. Once I got a good ID picture I waited for the countdown to start and once it got to 2 I jumped out at Nathaniel pulling him in. The flash went off.

"Ha, ha, ha!" I couldn't help laughing his face was priceless.

"H-hey," he blushed

"Take a picture with me," I told him with a smile and the flash went off again capturing Nathaniel with his mouth gaping open, eyes wide and face flushed red. I laughed and he tried to leave. "No come on, take a picture with me, please Natty," I asked in the cutest voice I could manage and the flash went off again. "Come on just one good one," I begged. Nathaniel doesn't seem to have a single photogenic bone in his body because it took almost 10 shots to get a half way decent photo. On the last one the tables were turned as the countdown started Nathaniel hugged me around my shoulders the flash went off capturing me in the middle of a gasp and Nathaniel making a surprisingly sexy face. Okay I guess I have to take back that not photogenic remark. "H-Hey!" I yelled at him.

"Revenge!" he laughed. Well I couldn't argue with that.

"Okay then now we each pick 4 and write or draw on them," I told him, a little pouty I admit but as I started picking photos I started getting embarrassed. "Get out," I told him flatly.

"What?" he was shocked.

"I can't pick with you watching go stand outside until it's your turn," I shooed him out. I chose my ID photo, the picture of me pulling Nathaniel in the booth, the one decent one of both of us and the one where he hugged me. The hugging picture was the only one I drew on. I put hearts and stars all over the place and absent mindedly made banners and birds before I even realized it the picture was looking like a lame wedding announcement. It was embarrassing but I didn't have the heart to delete it. When they printed I immediately hid them and stepped out under Nathaniel's umbrella "Your turn," I said casually.

"Don't I get to see?" he asked.

"Nope," was all I said. Nathaniel looked curiously at me then went in. He took a while in there so while balancing the umbrella I quickly peeled off my ID photo sticker and put it on my enrollment form. When he came out I shoved the other pictures in my back pack.

"So don't I get to see?" I asked mimicking his question.

"Nope," he said mimicking my response. The rain had let up a bit.

"Listen the rains let up a bit and my apartment isn't that far I think I can make it from here," I smiled and tried to step out from under his umbrella, but he caught me by the wrist.

"Please, it's still raining pretty hard. If it's really not that far then let me walk you," I should have expected that he was a natural gentleman. I could feel a strange warmth spreading up my arm from where he held me on my wrist. I glanced down at his hand my face red as a beet.

"Oh!" he let go, jumping back. "Sorry," he whispered. He was still holding the umbrella over me leaving him out in the rain.

"No," I placed my hand over his on the handle and steered the umbrella over us both. He turned tomato red as I linked our arms. "Thanks," I started steering him toward my apartment. Again I felt a warmth spreading from evert place we touched. This time I let it flow into me climbing up my arm, spreading through my shoulder into my chest. It was strange how intimate it felt here under his umbrella. Everything was so intense, the colors of our cloths his and his golden blond hair were brighter the soft feel of the skin on the back of his hand was so smooth and soft. I could hear his slow breathing and he smelled like men's shampoo. I realized that my eyes were practically boring a hole in the side of his head from all the staring so I looked away. Looking around the opposite effect seemed to be happening around us. The sights the sounds they all seemed to be dulled. It was-

"Like we're the only two people in the world," he finished the sentence in my mind. My head snapped up. "Uh no nothing just," in the middle of Nathaniel's denial a car drove too close to the curb splashing up a wave of water.

"Watch out," I squeaked jumping back from under the umbrella. In the second it took for him to turn his head a wave of muddy rain water splashed up from the street ricocheted off the inside of his umbrella and rained straight down on Nathaniel's head.

"Oh my god Nathaniel… are you okay?" I asked my mouth gaping open like a fish.

"Uh…" he pushed his now drenched bangs out of his face. "Yeah I'm fine," he smiled weakly- I guess trying to reassure me but once the shivering started he could deny it no more. "Guess it's a little cold… I should get you home quick you're getting soaked too," he lightly place his hand on my back and l guided me forward before slipping it into my hand and making a break for it.

By the time we got to my house we were both soaked to the bone and shivering like crazy. The umbrella had been rendered useless by the force of that splash so we simply ran the two block to the apartment in the down pour. His hand was still in mine when he opened the lobby door for me.

"Well here we are," he said glancing at me. The second he did his eyes widened and he flinched away letting go of my hand. Did I really look that bad? I tucked my hair behind my ear and dropped my head. Then I understood what had him raddled my once loose fitting maxi dress was now pinned to every inch in every crevice of my body.

"Oh," I pulled my dress off my body and looking up at Nathaniel I noticed that his white button down shirt was completely see through and it clung to every inch of his body too. He was stranger than he looked. Though I guess I should have known that already he did carry me to the nurse's office yesterday.

"Well I should go-" I stopped him mid-sentence.

"Come up,"

"W-What,"

"Hurry up," I dragged him by the arm up the stairs. I was freezing my but off and I hadn't been splashed by a puddle of dirty water so I know Nathaniel must feel even worse- but maybe even more than that honestly I just didn't want to be alone.

"Uh I should really be getting home though,"

"B-but it's cold and still raining outside if you walk all the way home you could catch your death,"

"Yeah but,"

"Just come up dry off and warm up, I'll loan you an umbrella and you can leave," I told him as we rounded the second floor.

"Oh well uh,"

"And, I'll wash your clothes I'm sure I can find you something to wear in the meantime, I don't want you to get sick," I told him not really giving him a chance to talk- really not giving him a chance to say no. we had reached the third floor- my floor- and I could feel my knee start to scream at me.

"Are you okay," he was quite the observant one.

"Yeah I'm fine," I said dismissively as I unlocked the door. It was a good call for me to invite Nathaniel in by the time that we got upstairs the rain had doubled in strength you could barely see anything. "Uh the bathroom is this way," I started flipping on the lights. "You can rinse off if you want just leave you clothes in the hall I'll go find something for you to wear," I said but when I turned to look at him Nathaniel's face was beet red and he looked super awkward. Well I guess it was weird part of me kept forgetting that we had just met yesterday. Something about Nathaniel felt familiar like we were old friends meeting again after a long while.

"Um yeah so I'll be back with clothes," I would just ignore the awkwardness and go with the flow. Again I was just being selfish as long as he wasn't outwardly saying no I would just keep going on with my plan to have him keep me company. I grabbed a towel and dried off myself before scouring every piece of my clothing for something that could fit Nathaniel. The only thing that even came close was an old KISS t-shirt my dad gave me from his teen years. It was kinda big on me but how would it fit Nathaniel. I had nothing in the form of pants that could possibly fit him so I went to aunt aggies room to search through her stuff. Unlike the rest of the house aunt aggie's room hadn't been organized by me it was a total wreck with fabrics thrown everywhere and designs were tossed about to. It looked like she was just stepping out of her clothes and leaving them on the floor. I went to see what she had in her dresser but no dice so I went to her closet. The second I opened it boxes of crap she packed in there came plummeting down on my head. "Ah," ugh! And just when I thought that it was over and started to get up one last box busted me right on my forehead. "UGH!" when I looked to see what it was the box was labeled maternity clothes. "What," aunt Aggie never had any children. I popped open the box to find piece after piece of maternity clothing. This didn't make since at all but at least I found what I needed there was a pair of pants that looked big enough to fit him.

"Here are some clothes and a towel," I said with a quick tap on the door.

"Thanks," I could barely hear him. Scooping up his clothes I went downstairs and put them in the wash. Then after putting some tea on and searched the pantry for some food, I popped some cookies macarons and any other snack foods I could find on a plate.

"Nathaniel?" I called. The tea was almost done and he still hadn't come down so I went up to investigate. "Hello," I knocked on the bathroom door.

"… I'm not coming out…"

"What why not?"

"I'm just… not coming out,"

"Nathaniel," I pouted. "c'mon… I made snacks,"

"Sorry I just… can't,"

"Why?"

"It's just these clothes,"

"What's wrong with them?"

"The fit is just a little… little,"

"You can't get them on?"

"No, but everything is very tight,"

"So what come out please,"

"I can't…"

"Is something… uh poking out, or something?"

"N-No, but,"

"But nothing come out," I whined and reached for the knob it was locked. "You have 5 minute till I set out the snacks if you don't come out I'm picking the lock," I called to him and marched off to the kitchen. I made a quick stop at the laundry closet to put his clothes in the dryer.

Okay maybe I was being a baby I mean I had to keep reminding myself that I had only known Nathaniel for a day and a half it was just so easy to get along with him that I forget that we're technically strangers. It was really stupid of me to invite him into my apartment but I couldn't stand the thought of spending another evening alone. My hands shook at the thought of it, so bad that I almost dropped the teapot and had to grip it with both hands. I glanced at the clock he had 3 more minutes. To pass the time I arranged and re-arranged the snacks on the plate. Once that got old and I could wait no more I took the plate to the living room, throwing a quick glance at the stairs. As I started to turn away a blinding flash shined through the window turning everything white the bright flash was quickly followed by a deafening boom that shook the apartment. Then everything went black and a strange scream a shrieking high pitched keening sound that hurt my own ears. It wasn't until I stopped to take a breath that I realized that the sound was coming from me. It was a feeling like no other my body convulsed and it was hard to breath. I don't know when I dropped the cookie plate. My legs started to slip from under me. I could see the floor racing toward my face, all of a sudden I was encircled in a pair of warm arms.

"Amy! Amy are you okay!? Amy," Nathaniel was there holding me tight his warmth like a shock giving me back a control of my body a little bit. I was still trembling and I whimpered a bit. Another flash came but my vision was mixed with images that didn't belong there images that I never wanted to see again. The boom followed and just as I expected, I let out a yelp and buried my face into his chest. As if it were happening all over again I watched my family die. The bright flash of the explosion and the deafening boom. I lost control over my body again.

"Is it the thunder and lightning," he whispered. So that's what it was. My brain had been so flooded with fear that I couldn't even think. Slowly Nathaniel walked me to the couch and sat me down. Another flash of lightning had me jumping into a ball.

"Ah," I whined covering my ears.

"hold on," he ran to the window and closed the curtains, but the thunder still boomed.

"Ah!," I screamed uncontrollably again. I slapped my own hand over my mouth to stop it. All of a sudden his arms were there encircling me.

"Shh, shh, it's okay, you're okay, I'm here Amy. You're not alone," I don't know why but that instantly calmed me. those 3 words You're not alone, they seemed to melt away my panic. Instead of being the trembling screeching mess I only shook slightly in his arms. He pulled my legs up on his lap and my head against his shoulder and whispered comforting words in my ear. "It's alright Amy I'm here, I won't let anything hurt you, I'm here," he rubbed my back and I felt like crying. I buried my head in his chest and held my breath. Again I had to remind myself that Nathaniel was a stranger, it felt like we'd known each other for years… It was nice to not be alone too.

After a few minutes of sitting in Nathaniel's arms the storm quieted and I finally regained full control of my body again. I took a deep breath and looked up at him.

"Better?" he asked a slightly awkward half smile on his face. I just nodded embarrassed of my behavior. I hadn't realized I was gripping his shirt so tightly, and that made me realize the position I was in, literally. I was perched in his lap one fist clutching his chest the other wrapped around his back my chest pressed against his side, and at some point in my panic I had wrapped my legs around his right arm.

"Oh gosh sorry!" I jumped up immediately tripping over the coffee table in my haste. "Ah!" I lurched backward flopping into the easy chair, so hard that it reclined and the foot rest deployed.

"Are you okay," Nathaniel rightened my chair.

"Yeah, I guess I'm a little jumpy today sorry," I said glancing up at him in the little light there was. It wasn't until then that I noticed the clothes I gave him. The baggy shirt that came to my hips hugged him pretty tightly and it only came down to maybe my his belly button, but I wouldn't actually know cause the maternity pants that I thought were long enough covered more of his torso than his legs. My mouth fell open. I just covered it silently.

"What are you hurt?"

"N-" I was about to say no but the obnoxious sound of the dryer finishing sounded. "Oh your clothes." I made a hasty escape to the laundry closet where I could laugh in private. Okay I could see why he didn't want to come out. I would have barricaded myself in the bathroom if someone gave me clothes like that to wear. I laughed into my hands.

"Is something wrong?"

"No I-I just sneezed," I nervously opened the dryer and at that moment the lights came back on. "Here you're clothes are dry," I couldn't look at him as I passed him his clothes. I know I'd burst out laughing. He took the clothes eagerly.

"I-I'll get changed right now," he said quickly flying up the stairs.

"o-okay," was all I could manage and again I laughed to myself. "Oh crud the tea," I ran into the kitchen and took out the teabags.

It was the strongest bitterest tea I had ever tasted and no amount of sugar water or milk helped. Great. I sighed.

"I should get going," Nathaniel called as I poured out my rotten tea.

"What already," I could hear the whineyness seeping into my voice. Nathaniel glanced at the clock. It was almost 5:00.

"Well eventually my parents will start to wonder where I am," he laughed uncomfortably.

"Oh okay I guess I'll hold you for ransom another day," I pouted as I walked him to the door. He laughed. "Um and… thank you… for you know staying with me, and stuff,"

"Anytime," he smiled a cute half smile that made my heart race and then he was gone.

When Nathaniel left Amy it was still raining he went to pull out his umbrella but it was nowhere to be found, he must have let it upstairs. He couldn't go back for it he knew if he did it would make it even harder for him to leave. He stepped out into the now soft rain. Pulling out his four pictures he smiled. A souvenir from his date. The last picture was his favorite. It was the picture of Amy with a forlorn expression on her face and her hand on her chest. She was beautiful and unlike Amy, Nathaniel could recognize the feelings growing in him he was already so attached I pained him to leave her. He had a crush on her the minute she had bumped into him in the hallway, no even before that, before he had even formally met her. Once he had seen her dance when his mother had dragged him to a ballet. Ever since then his heart had been moved by her. Every second he spent with her now just made his crush stronger, but an image flashed in his mind, Amy walking to school with Castiel, smiling as they listened to some song, him grabbing her arm, them gazing into each other's eyes. Nathaniel shook his head trying to erase the image. He could see Castiel's interest in her too and he knew that if Castiel found out about his feelings for her it would just make him want to steal Amy away like some sick game of revenge. Nathaniel pushed back his lightly dampened hair and walked down the familiar street to his house with a solemn look on his face.

He was at least three hours late and he knew that pain was coming for him when he entered the house so he sat down on the back steps. And for a few minutes he let himself feel happy. He was allowed that much right a few short minutes of happy thoughts, fantasy's memories before he plunged head first back into the hell that was his life. He closed his eyes and leaned against the railing. A tear drop slipped out mixing with the rain drops already on his face.

"Nath?" the back door opened and amber poked her head out. "here you are mom and dad have been calling you, they're furious," amber said but she froze her eyes locking on the pictures in Nathaniel's hands. He quickly shoved them in his pocket and got up. Preparing for the plunge Nathaniel headed back to reality.


	4. Chapter 3: The Angel has Fallen

**Chapter 3**

Aunt Aggie insisted on driving me again this morning, but I didn't care. I was in too good a mood. I don't know why but after yesterday's meeting with Nathaniel I had a light bubbly feeling, and I was ridding that high when I saw my little nerd walking alone.

"Aunty I can make it from here," I told her jumping out of the car. Again she was driving like two miles an hour. I ran after Ken and like Nathaniel did yesterday, I slung my arm around his shoulder. "Hi-ya handsome, where were you yesterday," I asked in my good mood. Of course Ken was flustered.

"A-Amy y-y-you noticed I was gone," he said, blinking like a thousand times.

"Of course, I'm so used to having you around all the time, I worry about you," I told him honestly leaning my head against his. I couldn't help it I had been protecting Ken since the day we met. While he was here within the reach of my arms I felt this need to protect him.

"Oh," he said sounding disappointed. I still had my arm hanging over his shoulder when we turned the corner to the courtyard. "Hey you should spend lunch with me and a couple of friends, okay, promise," I winked at him and headed off to an empty set of benches to stealthily adjust my knee brace. I had on a loose pair of pants today so no one would notice. I yanked them up to tighten my straps. Someone sat down next to me.

"Hey you're the new girl right," it was a voice I didn't recognize. I looked up but I didn't recognize his face either. The boy was very pale with a few freckles doting his face and a pair of shocking ice blue eyes. Framing his face was jet black hair cut into a faux hawk.

"Uh yeah I'm Am-"

"Amarantha right," he held out his hand and shook mine vigorously.

"Uh Amy, I, my name is Amy," oh no how did he know my name.

"Oh anyway I was just wondering if you wanted to go do something later on behind the school, I know this super private place no one goes," he leaned in and grabbed my hand.

"What are you doing!?" I snatched my hand from him.

"Hey if it makes you interested I already have a girlfriend,"

"What the heck!" I got up immediately. "You're disgusting,"

"Me? Coming from the girl who sleeps around with other chicks boyfriends I'd say you're the disgusting one,"

"Wh-what are you even talking about you jerk!"

"You can't play dumb now everybody in school knows about it,"

"About what," I could hear my snippiness seeping into my voice.

"About how you were… in your last school," he smirked mischievously. I had a bad feeling about this.

"What do you mean how I was?" I asked. He simply smiled at me and shrugged his shoulders.

"You'll find out soon enough," then he got up and started to leave. "If you ever change your mind about do'n it just come find me,"

"Yeah right," I yelled.

"All I heard was, yeah!" he yelled back jokingly.

"UGH!" I stormed off to the side entrance.

That's when I saw it, hanging over the door a huge paper banner of me and Ken with hearts all around us, saying _The Nerd birds of Sweet Amoris high. _Honestly I wouldn't put is past Ken to have done this but the simple fact that that blonde girl had used the phrase nerd birds like a thousand times gave me an answer to who the real culprit was. Everyone in the courtyard was staring and laughing the atmosphere was just too heavy for me I had to get away, so ran into the school building.

Inside was worse that girl had taped up hundreds of other crudely Photo shopped pictures of me. As I looked around I could see the words, Loser, Bitch, and Ho glaring out from a few of the fliers. I had started to wonder where she'd gotten the pictures from when I saw one I recognized. Nathaniel's revenge picture. Except that the place where Nathaniel's head should be was replaced with Ken's. A girl came running up to me with a microphone in hand and shoved it in my face.

"Amarantha Briggs why did you lie about your name? Is it true that at your old school you used to seduce other girls boyfriends for fun? What is your relationship with other new student Kentin Moore?" the girl asked firing off question after question.

"What," I managed to ask between a couple of questions. She showed me a flier. It was my picture with the word Slut written across the top in red letters. On the back I had a quote from someone saying_, yeah I went to school with Amy she's a total fake. She was always trying to get with other girls boyfriends and the second she did she'd dump them and move on to the next boy she was a complete ho. She had to change schools cause everyone was ready to kill her._

I pulled another flier off the wall this one said Two-Faced. _You better watch out this girl and I were really good friends till Amy came along she-,_ I pulled another off of the wall _Amy's bad news_ it said and the next _she's a liar! _And another _SLUT!_

"That's not true," I whispered to myself. When I looked up my eyes locked with the blonde. She smiled looking satisfied. _I warned you, _she mouthed. I looked around at all the people in the hall the crowd's faces were a mixture of disgust, anger, laughter and a few lewd gestures were made. Some guys smiled and hooted and a few girls laughed.

"We don't want a girl like this in our school," a girl yelled.

"Speak for yourself! I want a girl like her in our school," a boy called. People laughed.

While I was staring at the crowd someone shoved me, knocking me up against something- I think a ladder- it knocked a bucket over my head and a thick goo covered my head. I threw off the bucket and touched my hair. It looked and smelled like Elmer's glue.

"Woo!" someone hooted.

"Looks good on you!" Another shouted.

Then the door flew open and in came Nathaniel dragging something behind him.

"Amber!" he shouted and then he noticed me standing there.

"You," I said in a pitiful whisper. I had meant for it to be a loud yell I wanted to scream and curse at him from the top of my lung, and tell him what to shove and where to put it and where he could go after words but l was too hurt. "Traitor," was all I managed to get out before running down the hall. So this is what that boy meant when he said everybody knew what I was like at my other school he meant everybody was buying into that girls lies.

I pushed my way through the densely packed crowd of students who pushed and kicked me some even pulled at my clothes and hair while they laughed.

"Wait! Amy Wait!" Over their laughs and calls I could hear Nathaniel calling to me to wait. No way was I listening. Had he been planning this with that girl all along? Is that why he said I needed a picture for my ID. What was that girl to him anyway if she liked Castiel so much? These questions and more ran through my head as I broke past the crowd and went to the only place I felt safe.

I curled up into a ball and watched the city go by on the roof of the school as I picked the dried glue out of my hair, when Nathaniel found me. "Amy it's-" he started to say but I didn't want to hear it.

"Just leave me alone. You and your little girlfriend or whatever got me okay, you win, so you can stop pretending like you care. I'm not stupid okay, I know all that crap yesterday was a just your little act. So don't pretend like your all surprised and upset about what happened," I yelled, but that's exactly what he did his eyes widened and it was clear to see the hurt behind them. Faker.

"I didn't do this," he denied. "And amber she's-" I saw some fliers balled up in his hand and snatched one out.

"Oh yeah, then what's this," I asked him pointing at the picture. "Is this not from yesterday did I not take this with you!" I yelled.

"It's Amber, she must have gotten that from my room," so that was the monsters name.

It was too much, it was all too much my family's death, my slow recovery, the loss of everything I've ever known and now this. I was supposed to be starting new so why was it going so bad. I didn't want to think about it anymore or be tricked by Nathaniel's lies so I swung my legs over the edge of the roof and slid down to the top rung of the ladder. This was a little trick that Castiel showed me. Not so easy with a leg brace but I could manage. I heard Nathaniel yell after me, but like I said I didn't want to think about it anymore…

So why was I still thinking about it. I had gone over it over and over in my head but I couldn't find any way to make Nathaniel the good guy. Though some part of me wanted him to be. I wanted to believe in the boy that I walked with under an umbrella, played with inside a picture booth and sat with through the storm. Maybe she did take it from his room! But then why was she in his room to begin with. A pain started to rip at my chest. Was she his girlfriend? He never denied it, but then why did she tell me to stay away from Castiel if she-. Ugh I was getting nowhere with this.

I gave up on my aimless walking and hunkered down at the edge of an alleyway. I hadn't realized it till now but my book bag had been opened. When I checked to make sure that nothing was stolen I saw the notebook.

It was the notebook that prevented me from ripping that Amber girl's hair out. I flipped it open and looked through the first page. Just to see if there was a name or address in it.

It was a poem and a real beautiful one too about love and loss the fear of being alone. It's like this person read my mind taking lines right out of my diary-well if I had one. After I finished the first poem my hands instantly flipped to the next one and the next. I knew it was wrong to read this persons private thoughts but I couldn't help it the lines they wrote were so wonderful… they lifted the heavy weight off of my own heart and made me forget, well at least for the moment.

"Well if it isn't the little angel, what are you doing skipping school," of course who else would find me in this low moment but Castiel. I glared up at him silently. I wasn't in the mood for banter today. "Who pissed in your cornflakes?" he said looking annoyed at my lack of response. I snapped the notebook shut and put it in my book bag. I'd put it in lost and found tomorrow. I put on my backpack and tried to leave, but Castiel blocked my path. "What the hell is wrong with you, and what is up with your hair," he asked glaring back into my eyes. I tossed him the papers that I just realized were still in my hand.

"See for yourself," I told him wiping off the ink that had stuck to my hand. He read one.

"Who'd you piss off," he asked sounding impressed.

"Apparently the class president and his girlfriend," I told him. He silently lifted one eyebrow.

"No chance, A.) That loser doesn't have a girlfriend" Castiel said he laughed.

"What,"

"And B.)We've been on the top of each other's shit list since 8th grade and he's never even tried to pull anything this big on me, no way he'd do this to some little girl he doesn't even know," Castiel told me. Was he trying to cheer me up?

That's when I realized, Castiel was a really sweet person, though he hid behind harsh words. "His bitchy sister might though," he told me while I was lost in thought. Wait sister?

"Wait sister!?" I almost shouted.

"Yeah blonde hair, green eyes, about this tall, sour face-,"

"And completely obsessed with you!" it was getting harder to restrain myself.

"So you have met her," he said annoyed. So maybe Nathaniel wasn't involved or he might be an inadvertent part in all of this. If so then what? Do I say sorry and try to be friends? If I did that witch would just do something like this again, or do I avoid him, protect myself and live a quiet school life… Ha yeah right like I could live quietly. Screw amber and her wicked ways I could take it. Why in the world would I let this nobody that I didn't know rule me?

"Ha," I started laughing to myself.

"Go home I think you've snapped," Castiel said, but I wasn't losing it. No, I was thinking clearer than ever before. I shook my head at him.

"I just realized how stupid I've been acting. Since I got to this school, no long before I even came to this school, I've always been so worried about what people would think of me, I never wanted to let anyone down," I took ballet because mom wanted me to be a ballerina, I worked hard to get into that school because my teacher wanted me to become an idol superstar. Yeah Imperial academy was nicknamed the supernova cause it made stars explode. All the biggest stars went there but, singer, actress, prima ballerina, not one of these dreams were mine. Don't get me wrong I had good times doing all that stuff, but as time went on my enjoyment of these activities waned. I just did them because everyone expected me to. In my heart I just wanted a normal life. I thought that this was my chance to live a normal school life, so I'd been walking on eggshells worried about what to say and how to act, again trying to be what people expected. I wasn't being me, hell I didn't know who the hell I was!

Well there was no chance I would be making many friends now, and somehow that was freeing. My parents were gone and my brother but for some reason I was still alive and I wasn't gonna waste it. "Hey Castiel do you know where I can find a-," It was time for change.

"We're gonna do it here?" I asked him nervously. He had brought me to the back room of some tattoo shop. "Are we even allowed back here," I whispered violently. The heavily tattooed man who let us in looked back at me. He had a half purple half black, relaxed Mohawk that hung down the side of his face and some scary piercings. I smiled quickly, waved nervously and turned immediately on my heels and ran into the room.

"Ha," Castiel laughed as he patted the big leather chair. I sat stiffly like a prisoner waiting for execution. Castiel laughed again.

"You know this was your idea right?" he said seeing my nerve stricken face.

"I know I want to do this," it sounded like I was trying to convince myself. Castiel sighed and held out his hand.

"Here,"

"What do you take me for some kind of kid," I asked annoyed well I tried to sound annoyed. He raised one eyebrow in a smug fashion, and I gave up on being tuff. "Thank you," I whispered grudgingly and took his hand. He laughed that superior laugh.

At that moment a colorful girl came bursting in, piercing gun in hand. "Cassey welcome," she yelled glomping him. Then she looked at me and our joined hands. "Who's this?" she asked darkly.

"Just some girl from school," he said and I gotta admit it stung a bit, but it was true I had known him for what two, three days we weren't exactly friends. "And the girl you'll be piercing," he said and my nerves were back, I clutched his hand tightly. The girl noticed this and she smiled and looked up at Castiel.

"You, out," she detached our hands and pushed him out the door.

"Uh well maybe we shouldn't-" I was about to chicken out when she spun around and pushed me down. Now that I had a closer look at her it was easy to see that she was the type I'd expect Castiel to hang with. Her hair was a short bob dyed in stripes of neon green and pink. She wore a short pair of neon overalls that covered no more than her butt to her bellybutton and a rainbow bandeau.

"Let's get started," she said putting the gun to my ear.

"Wait! You didn't even ask what I wanted to get done yet, I don't even know who you are or what your name is," okay I was stalling.

"UUUUUUUgh! Fine I'm Sarah I work here I handle tattoos and piercings," she said cheerfully. "Now what do you want to get done?" she asked annoyed.

"U-um well," I hadn't really thought about it this was a spur of the moment thing. I had always wanted to do something like this but I knew I couldn't so I didn't have details.

"UUUUUUUUUUUgh! See you don't even know just let me do my thing and you can take out the ones you don't like. They'll heal right up and nobody'll ever know," she whined. While I stopped to think she took advantage of the situation and pushed me down.

"W-what are you doing,"

"Well first I'm gonna clean the area, then we'll get started,"

"And you'll do this without a note from my parents or guardians,"

"Yeah, why you gonna tell on me,"

"No I'm just wondering why,"

"Hmm well Castiel asked and I'd do anything for him,"

"D-do you like love him," I asked shyly, remembering how she glared at me.

"Yeah a lot, he's like a little brother to me," she said tousling my hair. "The last girl he brought to me was a real awful chick. She messed him up for a long time," she said sadly and then snapped within 1 second. Her hand flickered into a fist clutching my matted hair and she pulled back quickly. "So if you're thinking about playing with my little bro's feelings I'll hunt you down and break you," she growled. "Got it?"

"Got it," I whined with my head snapped back. As quickly as her mood came it was gone, as she let go of my hair.

"Gross what kind of conditioner is this," Sarah asked noticing how disgusting my hair was.

"It's not conditioner it's glue,"

"What the heck are you doing putting that in your hair," she asked wiping her hand on her leg.

"_I _didn't do it. My third day of school and I'm already on some girl's hit list," I sighed.

"Come here let's see if we can get it out," Sarah pulled out a metal comb and started raking through my hair.

"Ow," I flinched. The glue had fused my hair together into one big glob. This was going to take forever… And it was going to hurt the whole time.

"Stay still," she demanded popping my on the head before going back to the torture. For a moment we sat in silence as she pulled the follicles out of my head. "… So you're new…" She asked.

"Yeah…," after that Sarah asked me question after question- not in the interrogating way that the girl at school did, but in the way people did when they wanted to get to know a friend.

"Well this is as good as I can get it once you go home soak the rest out in a hot bath," Sara told me. Almost all the glue was out.

"Now back to our regular programming," She said pulling me back to the other chair.

While she snapped on gloves. There was a nagging question I had on my mind that I wanted to ask "So about that girl Castiel used to date," Sarah's face grew dark really fast. I wanted to ask more about this girl but I was getting the feeling Sarah wouldn't tell me. So I asked a different question.

"Has he brought a lot of girls by here?"

"Nope just you and that girl for piercings, other than that the only other friend I've met was some boy for a tattoo,"

"And you tattooed him," I asked shocked.

"Like I said I'd do anything for Castiel and he asked, alright here comes the pinch,"

"Wait! I have one more request!"

"She did it on purpose," I yelled at Castiel over the table while I held one of my ears. Sarah CLAIMED that she accidentally put a few earrings in the wrong place so she pulled them out and re-pierced me again and again a few different times. After leaving the tattoo studio we stopped by a diner for a bite to eat.

"No she didn't, stop being a baby," he told me, as he took a bite of his burger, but he had a mighty big smile on his face!

"And how did I get a nose piercing I went in there for my ears," I said twisting the small stud I was checking out in the reflection of the napkin dispenser.

"I don't see you taking it out," he got me there. I liked the nose piercing it was just a little stud on the side of my nose but it gave my face character. I felt like a new person.

"I'm just not sure I can slip this buy my aunt," I told him putting the napkin dispenser down.

"You said the only time you see her she's either asleep or delirious just, tell her she's imagining things," I laughed at his joke. Not because it was funny but because it might just work. At least until it healed and I could wear the cleared invisible stud at home. "Why were you in there so long anyway, piercings don't take that long?" he asked.

"Noneya,"

"What,"

"None ya business, Ohhhh!" I teased he just raised his eyebrow at me.

"You're not funny," he said flatly.

"Okay she was helping me get some of this glue out of my hair," I pulled at a lock to show him it wasn't entirely untrue but we did a lot more than that. "It's gonna take forever to get the rest out," I pouted. Castiel looked at me with guilty eyes.

"Yeah," was all he said and then he was really focused on eating his fries.

"So what up with you and Amber,"

"Nothing she's just crazy," he looked pissed that I asked.

"And what about that Charlotte girl,"

"That's none of your business!" he yelled slamming his fist on the table good thing the diner was empty.

"Sorry, sorry, I forgot touchy subject,"

"It's not a touchy subject, it's just nothing little girls like you should be sticking your nose into,"

"Sorry… I just, don't get it,"

"It's not for _you_ to get,"

"Here's your strawberry shake and apple turnover," our waiter said giving me my desert.

"Got enough food their Fat Bastard?" Castiel asked.

"Oh behave," I told him in my best Austin Powers impression. I admit along with this I had order a double cheeseburger, fries, onion rings, a soda- had 2 refills- a small thing of Mac and cheese those bread sticks they leave at the table in the beginning before you get the meal, a second order of fries and some chicken strips...I guess the was a lot of food but c'mon. "This is the first time in my entire 15 year existence that I have the freedom to eat whatever I want, and I'm going to enjoy it,"

"What were you anorexic or something?"

"Wha- no, I was driven. I had goals and aspirations and dreams, and they all required me to eat a certain way and be a certain weight," I trailed off.

"And now you don't,"

"…Nope,"

"what you just give up," That struck a nerve.

"I absolutely did not _give up_ I was forced to stop,"

"oh yeah why,"

"That's none of your business,"

"yeah that's exactly what a quitter would say," he was really getting on my nerves with that.

"I didn't quit!"

"Well it sounds like you did,"

"I did not!"

"Oh yeah then why'd you stop!"

"Because I was broken!" My hand automatically reached for my brace. A small realization hit me in that moment. I had truly been broken not just my body but my mind as well. My head hung low. What must my parents think of me right now? They must be so ashamed.

"Sorry…" he whispered. I just shook my head.

"It was just a freak…car accident," the word accident burned my mouth, leaving a bitter taste on my tongue. Everyone who knew what happened knew it was no accident. "Three people very close to me were killed..."

"Sorry..." he repeated. I felt something warm touch the top of my head. I peered up to see Castiel patting my head. I had to drop my head even lower to hide my smile. He wasn't the obnoxious bad boy I pegged him as. After a minute he stopped.

"So," the silence was starting to get uncomfortable more and more so with every second that it dragged on. "Um what are you into besides good music," I asked.

"Nothing,"

"Nothing c'mon you have to like something besides listening to good music,"

"What's with all the questions it's not like this is a date princess?"

"Yeah but that doesn't mean we can't get to know each other, c'mon befriend the new kid just this once,"

"No," he leaned away, but I grabbed the sleeve of his jacket and tugged gently.

"C'mon!" I tugged a little harder.

"No, get off,"

"Please! Just tell me about yourself,"

"No,"

"Come on! Just one thing tell me one fact about yourself and I'll let go," he stopped struggling.

"… Playing it."

"What."

"I don't just listen to _great _music I play it… I'm in a band," he said looking away from me.

"Really? Cool what's it called," I asked letting go of his jacket finally.

"You don't need to know,"

"Why not," if he didn't tell me their name I couldn't look them up. Wouldn't a band want more people to listen to them? "And what do you do singer, drummer?"

"Guitarist… lead guitarist,"

"Cool I was a singer once,"

"Good for you," he said flatly.

"You know you're always such a joy," I said getting up. "Uh can we get our bill," I called to a waiter, who had it ready immediately, I had lost my appetite. When I went to grab it Castiel intercepted. Stuffed a stack of bills in the folder and yanked me by the arm out the door. "Aw you paid for my meal does that mean we're going steady," I asked sarcastically grabbing his hand, but he yanked away immediately.

"In your dreams Princess," he said but it seemed forced so I stopped.

"So Sarah seems super nice I had a super great girl talk," I smiled. Maybe I didn't have friends at school but I think I made friends with her.

The sun was just starting to set painting the sky beautiful shades of orange and pink and blue. It was beautiful or at least it should have been. As much as I wanted to tell myself that today's incident would free me to be myself I still dreaded going to school tomorrow.

"Maybe I'll just fake sick, stay home," I said to myself shoving my hands into my pocket.

"Hmm," Castiel said raising a brow. I just shook my head.

"Just thinking about what I' going to do tomorrow," the way today went tomorrow won't be much better. I sighed. "It's going to be horrible," he looked away, and for the rest of the way we walked in silence. "Well, this is me," I pointed up at the building. It was now dark when we reached the apartment. I was about to head in when Castiel finally broke the silence and called out to me.

"Hey, tomorrow, if someone says anything to you… just ignore them," he said and then quickly turned and walked away.

"You really are a nice guy you know," I whispered to myself and went inside.

Castiel headed back to his house annoyed by the thought of having to go sit through a whole day of school tomorrow. But he would, just to watch out for her. He felt partly responsible for what had happened. A lot of girls who got close to him were hurt by Amber not that he had liked any of them he was still reeling from the pain of his first heartbreak. "When will this end," he said slamming his fist into the wall. He clutched his chest. Though the pain wasn't as bad today only by a little. He put his headphones on and started playing that song from Vista lip that Amy played for him on their way to school.

I was getting ready for bed when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I pulled back my hair to look at my ears. I had to admit I liked the piercings Sarah did three on the lobe of one ear and three on the top of the other. Though I was all pierced up it was still girly, but it didn't feel like enough you couldn't even tell I had them when my hair was down. I wanted something more dramatic. I went into aunt Aggie's sewing room and got her sharp fabric scissors. As I held them I was reminded of what Castiel called me today. "Angel huh," I stopped and peeled the bandages off my back. Laying under them was my first tattoo. The beginning of two angel wings just the beginning. The part of the wings that made you fly were torn away. A few loose feathers spread here and there across my back. Sarah had done a good job with the tattoo. It captured exactly how I felt. The angel was gone now her wings had been torn from her back and turned to ash. I thought as I picked up the scissors again and made the first cut.

This was the first day to the rest of my life.


	5. Chapter 4: Welcome To Laughing Man!

**Chapter 4**

Ugh my back hurts, I thought as I woke up from a strange dream. It was easy to see why I was in pain only the lower half of my body was still on the bed. I picked my head up off the floor and checked the clock it was 5:30am. No wonder I was still tired. It had been 3 weeks since that girl Amber had made up those rumors about me. Honestly it doesn't really seem like anyone honestly believes it. It's more like they like having an excuse to harass someone or gossip. If everybody has a common enemy it's easy to get along with each other.

As I got up off the floor something didn't feel right. My head felt lighter and everything was so breezy. I looked down at myself just to make sure everything was there, when something brushed against my neck. I launched myself across the room and turned on the lights. "H-hello?" I asked looking around but no one was there. I put my hand on the back of my neck that's when I felt it or well didn't feel it I guess is more accurate. It had been 3 weeks since I cut my hair 3 weeks and I still hadn't gotten used to it. My long and beautiful amaranth hair that usually hung down to my waist had been chopped up to my neck. I trudged to the bathroom to get a good look at it. My hair was a chopped up mess. WHAT HAD I DONE! My body gave out and I sunk to the floor. 3 weeks and I still wasn't over it. Like most girls do after cutting their hair I regretted it. I wanted it to be a dream. I got up off the floor and turned around in the mirror. "I really got a tattoo?" I asked myself as I slowly pulled down the back of my shirt. 3 weeks and I still wasn't over it. I have a tattoo. An amazingly beautifully awesome tattoo. There at the edge of my shoulder was one of the loose feathers. I gasped. Wow. Of course the piercings were still there too now sticking out from my short hair. I made sure to twist each like I was supposed to. I went back to my room to start looking through my closet-that had the full length mirror I didn't think of using. I spilled ketchup on the hoodie I usually wore to hide my hair so i needed to find a new hoodie to cover me . I looked and looked but the only one I could find was my dads oversized jacket. It was the one with the fur around the edges like a parka. Well it would have to do I needed something tao over up this awful massacre of a haircut I did all the way until I could get it fixed. I only waited this long because I thought that maybe it would grow out a little… It didn't.

It was probably the ugliest jacket I'd ever seen and I'd complained so much when he gave it to me. Who knew it would come in handy now? I felt tears sting my eyes but I held them back, and put on the stupid ugly hoodie with a smile. It smelled just like him.

Man did I look stupid in that hoodie and it brought more attention to me. Of course when people realized that it was me in here they'd all start talking about what happened. THANKS A LOT DAD! Honestly I could hear him laughing now telling me I had to get over embarrassment. Fine then I couldn't let that that blonde brat Amber win! I walked down the hall proudly stupid looking hood firmly pulled in place when I caught a glance of Violetta ducking in a classroom. Since the incident Iris, Violetta and I haven't talked. That first day back in science class Iris and I sat in silence it looked like she wanted to say something and of course I did to but no words came. At first I was kinda disappointed but it was understandable I was the object of ridicule right now there was no reason for her to suffer with me. Hopefully she didn't believe all of the awful rumors too. It's alright I don't blame her. I was about to run off to my class when someone grabbed my arm.

"There you are," Nathaniel said huffing. Nathaniel was another story. At first I went looking all over for him trying to apologize but anytime I laid eyes on him I'd chicken out and run away. Had he been running to find me? "We have to talk," he said pulling me away, but the warning bell rung. I could see the conflict in his face, the want to follow the rules and be on time to class and the want to clear things up with me, were fighting each other in his head. I'd make it easy for him.

"Go to class we can talk later," I said trying to escape I was chickening out again.

"No, we'll talk now," he said firmly and pulled me away.

We were on the roof again sitting in awkward silence and I finally realized what Nathaniel had been dragging behind him the day of the incident. Sitting in a ripped up pile in a corner was the nerd bird banner Amber made. So he took it down and was going to yell at his sister about it. I remembered what happened this time without the veil of hurt and betrayal. Nathaniel had stormed into the building yelling for Amber dragging this behind him. Now I really felt bad for jumping to conclusions.

"I'm sorry!" We both shouted in unison. "You're sorry why?" we said in unison too. There was an awkward pause. We both busted out laughing at the same time.

"I'm sorry about what my SISTER did to you," he said emphasizing the word sister. "I didn't give her the pictures but it is my fault that she got them," he sounded so guilty it hurt my heart to watch him.

"No I'm sorry for accusing you, I jumped to conclusions even when you were obviously trying to help," I motioned to the ripped up banner. Nathaniel blushed red.

"I forgot to throw that away," he whispered to himself.

"You were so kind to me and I accused you without any evidence, the haze of emotion makes the eyes blind," I sighed quoting my favorite book. I looked up hesitantly at Nathaniel, but he was smiling.

"You like Bowen's detective stories," he asked a light in his eyes.

"Yeah, I love police novels, my dad was a detective for the police force," I felt a pang of pain in my chest. That detective job was what got him, mom and Sota killed. A drug lord that dad had put away wanted revenge, he got some guy from his gang to plant the bomb in the car and… well the rest is history. There were a lot of reminders of dad today.

"Really," Nathaniel asked that light still shining in his eyes.

"Yeah, when I was a kid he used to pull out some of his old cases and see if I could choose the bad guy," I laughed at the memory. "My mom hated it, especially when he worked in homicide. I used to run around the house yelling, I got the killer I got the killer, and mom would through a fit." I suddenly felt something warm roll down my cheek.

"A-Amy," Nathaniel said worriedly. I wiped the tear away quickly.

"Sorry I just miss him," I told him.

"Where is he?" Nathaniel asked hesitantly.

"My family isn't really around anymore," that was all I could say, and Nathaniel didn't push me.

"Oh," he said flatly

"We should probably get to class," I sniffed. It had been how many weeks since I started going here and I've been to first period maybe a handful of times. I started to walk away when Nathaniel grabbed my arm. I looked up at him but he didn't say anything. "Nathaniel?" I asked. He looked like he was choosing his words carefully or maybe just hesitant to speak.

"I'll understand… if," he paused "If you don't want to talk to me anymore," he said and I had no idea why. "I don't want you to get hurt and there's no guaranty that Amber won't do this again," he sighed. "I understand if you want to avoid me," Nathaniel finally said but his hand was gripping my arm so tightly. I bet there were a lot of people that avoided him because of his sister hell I'd considered it myself but it wouldn't feel right to abandon him. I looked in his eyes and smiled.

"No way are you getting rid of me that easily," I said and to mess with him I leaned in and pecked him lightly in the cheek. His grip immediately loosened and I slipped out. "See you later Natty," I said with a wink his face was completely red.

I was about 30 minutes late to first period, and I'm pretty sure that my first period teacher hates me. All throughout class Ms. Fergus my Spanish teacher was making all these little remarks about the importance of being here and how she couldn't remember my name cause I never showed up. Ugh. Honestly I was thinking of a way to duck out of class early till I noticed a note slide out of my desk. What? I flipped it open and read the hastily written note. _Amy we need to talk –Iris (that was never a good sign). _I flipped her note shut and looked up to try and at least look like I was paying attention when the projector came on. Huh? Everyone looked around curiously- even the teacher. Then when the picture finally loaded I saw a face I knew.

"Uh u-uh Hi Amy-chan? Uh I miss you so much Mr. Black told me you weren't feeling well and that's why you left. I hope you get well soon and come back, class isn't the same without you!" a cute blonde girl with her hair in pigtails exclaimed in a shy voice. Her name was Mimi and we were in ballet class together.

The screen flashed and a new face showed up this one I knew to. "Hey Aim's where the hell are you and why haven't you called me!" she shouted into the camera. "Black and white won't tell me anything, and Kenny skinny here," she reached past the camera to pinch, I'm guessing, Kens cheeks.

"Ouch," yup that was Ken's voice.

"Is keeping his lips sealed too, call me already," she yelled. I laughed so did everybody in class, well almost everybody. Ms. Fergus was glaring at me from the front of the room. Great if it wasn't official before it was now. This lady hated me, but I wouldn't let it get to me I was having too much fun seeing my friends. Another face flashed on the screen and another. I can't believe Ken did this. Tears started to form in my eyes and my vision blurred. Don't get me wrong it was still kind of mortifying that everyone in school was seeing this but when did Ken ever do anything that wasn't at least a little mortifying. Some of my said some really embarrassing things. Some showed really embarrassing pictures they told little stories about old times and even briefly caught me up on new ones. They told people who I was one after the next after the next. "And if I find out that someone is bullying you I'll kill'um," once Rika said that I knew the little slide show was over, and so was first period.

The second class ended I had to run for it, before Fergus caught me but waiting out in the hall for me was an even bigger surprise. On every locker on every wall on every surface of the hall way were pictures of me. Real pictures of me. Ones of me in my leotard at ballet, my first field trip, my first modeling job when I was 13 and my second and third, there were hundreds of pictures not one the same. Oh god this was embarrassing! As I looked around at all of the pictures the principal came into view. Oh great.

"Why am I not surprised that you are at the center of this? It seems that ever since you got here it's been one disturbance after another!"

"But ma'am it wasn't me!"

"Oh if not you then who I will punish them properly," I'm guessing she hadn't seen the whole video that went with it. As I looked around I saw Ken coming out of a closet with AV gear.

"… Okay it was me. Some mean girls made these fliers with mean messages on them so I wanted to show people they were not true. So I used their tactic against them." I said covering for Ken.

"My office now," the principal snapped. I followed, but then something distracted me.

One picture really caught my attention it was a photo of my family. I remembered it well, Ken had tagged along with us on a family vacation to the cabin in the woods. It was my favorite place in the world to be, it was the only time I really got to relax. I was swept away in the pain of nostalgia. I backed away unconsciously

"Ms. Briggs!" the principal noticed. I ran.

My heart raced painfully and I couldn't breathe. I couldn't make it to the roof so I went to the tree in the courtyard and huddled there with my head between my legs. What's going on? My body started to convulse and it became almost impossible to breath. Oh my god I'm gonna die! I thought in fear but the sound of Kens voice snapped me out of it.

"Amy?" he called out to the court yard. I had stopped shaking by the time he found me. Once the panic stopped a surge of anger flashed.

"What is wrong with you?" I exploded. I don't know why but suddenly I had all this anger that just needed to go somewhere. "Why do you always have to follow me around and do all of these crazy things," years of bottled feelings were all coming out. "I have TRIED to be your friend, I have TRIED to protect you, so why do you always, always have to do these crazy things that end up blowing up in MY face. Why can't you get over me and get your own life! God I am so tired of protecting you and babying you! What am I gonna do about Ken? I wonder how Ken is doing. I better go check on KEN! How long do I have to wait for you to stand on your own two feet, so that I can start my own life?!" I knew I would regret these words sometime and that sometime would be soon but right now I was too angry to care. "Why do you always have to embarrass me like this with these big shows of affection Ken?! I didn't tell anyone that I was leaving FOR A REASON! I DIDN'T TELL ANYONE WHERE I WAS GOING FOR A REASON! So that I could start fresh and not be burdened by crazy things like this!"

"But Amy I thought…" Ken lowered his head yup there was that regret right on time. Before I got a chance to apologize Ken ran off.

"Ken!" I yelled after him but he didn't stop. I was about to run after him but the principal showed up.

"Ms. Amarantha!" she shouted. Crap Ken was gonna have to wait.

While Amy was receiving her punishment Ken went off to hide and cry alone in the green house. He had really thought that he was helping he had spent days on that big surprise for Amy but it all just blew up in HIS face. He replayed her words in his head over and over. "_Why do you always have to embarrass me like this?" "! God I am so tired of protecting you and babying you!" _It was all true and he knew it Ken had always had Amy protecting him. Ken knew that he was useless to everyone around him but he was okay with that as long as he could be even a small help to the one he loved. Now that that was proving to be untrue ken didn't know what to do with his life he had no meaning no use he was worthless. A sob slipped through kens lips. He was weak and short and dorky and clingy he knew all that, but Amy had accepted that about him… well he thought she did. She had always smiled at him and told him it was okay she had always comforted him and done things for him. Ken was feeling worse and worse. He was a leach hanging onto Amy sucking the life from her and the thought of that continuing made him sick. Ken pulled out his cellphone. He pulled up his father's number.

"Kentin! For shit's sake you better not be calling to ask me to bring you home already!" his father yelled through the phone. The truth is every day since he got to Sweet Amoris high he had called his dad to come get him. That Amber girl had been picking on him so much he couldn't finish a whole day. Not once! His dad was so ashamed he threatened to send ken to military academy. Amber and her friends had stolen his money, so he started to pack a lunch, then they'd throw his lunch on the ground and shove his face in the dirt. They hit him and kicked him. He intended to just wait for the next semester and change into Amy's classes and stick close to her. She was strong and brave and while the girls openly picked on him they never approached her directly. Ken felt shame he was going to hide behind the one he loved again. "Kentin! Kentin boy answer me!" his dad shouted.

"I-" he took a deep breath. "I've decided to go," he said into the phone bleakly.

"Oh no I have to be on base at least till 12:00 so you're gonna have to tough it out until-"

"No to training. Dad I want to go to that military program… I want to get strong FOR AMY!" Kens dad loved Amy. Called her the son he never had. He had always wished she would rub off on ken, though he could see clearly that with his son the way he was that wasn't likely. So he tried settling for having her as a daughter in-law. He was always pushing ken to become a better man or at least a man at all for Amy. It wasn't until now that ken accepted it and it made his dad a little proud to see his son growing up.

"Really! You want to go." His dad sounded proud. "Well there is a term starting next month. I think I can get you squeezed in, but you have to know the terms are 9 months long and once you go in I am not coming to get you out you have to stay the whole term I won't even except your phone call Kentin, got it!" his dad said firmly but you could still her the pride he had for his boy oozing out.

"I understand Sir," Ken said firmly. For the next month he would try to make up with Amy and spend as much time with her as she would allow to hold him over for those 9 months. He would become stronger and faster and truly manly so that he could be dependable and useful he wanted Amy to love him but more than that he wanted to be worthy of her love. The next time he saw her he wanted to be the shield she could hide behind when she was in trouble.

Once I finally got to second period it was about half over too. For some reason Mr. Reiner wasn't there so I searched the back row for a good spot to hide in and sprinted for it.. Surprisingly next to the only seat left open in the back was Castiel. For a guy who I only met when we were technically skipping class her sure was showing up a lot more lately. I don't think he's missed a class since well about 3 weeks ago. But I wasn't complaining he was really the only person I talked to lately.

"Another hoodie? What's up with all these ugly jackets little Eskimo," Ugh but it didn't make him any less annoying. Another nickname was everyone in this school so repetitive?

"Don't ask," I said but he had an evil smirk on his face. Faster than a whip he grabbed at my hood.

"No!" I wrestled with him over it one hand pulling it down the other elbowed him in the ribs. till Amber chimed in.

"You know I find it amazing that you bother to show up everyday," Amber said in mock sympathy. Cas let me go and I fell into my seat. Again I sat there silently trying to think of something smart to say. Dang it I'm off my game, in the past I could spit venom with the best of them. Before I could think of anything good to say the teacher came in carrying a stack of papers.

"Alright everyone alright quite," he said as he crossed the room to his desk.

"Um Mr. Reiner I believe no students are allowed to wear any type of headwear inside," the hateful she witch said. I sunk deep in my seat so deep I was practically under my desk.

"Yes Amber that is correct," Mr. Reiner said absently as he organized his papers.

"Well it seems that one new student didn't get the memo," the dirty hag said oh so innocently looking back at me. Mr. Reiner looked up this time.

"Ms. Briggs," he motioned to my head. Why, why now he had let it slide for weeks it just because she says something everything has to change. Maybe it would have been better to wear the stained hoodie this one seemed to garner too much attention.

"Uh-um I-I can't," I told him hesitantly tying the strings of my hoodie under my chin.

"And why not," he asked skeptically.

"Uh m-medical reasons," I said like a question. "I could get you a doctor's note tomorrow," I offered. Mr. Reiner still looked skeptically at me but then he glanced at Amber.

"Fine I expect to see that note tomorrow," he said letting it go.

"Wha-a-at," Amber shouted slamming her hands on the desk.

"Amber down," he said pointing at her seat. I heard a snicker come from beside me. I looked over at Cas who had his face covered.

No matter how hard I looked I couldn't find Ken. Though I couldn't blame him, the way I blew up at him I wouldn't want to see me either. It didn't make it any easier that every time I stepped out of a class that microphoned girl- whose name I found out from Castiel was Peggy a journalist for the school paper- followed me everywhere asking all kinds of questions. At first I answered honestly but A: she looked like she didn't believe anything that came out of my mouth that didn't match up with what was on those fliers- which was nothing and B: she so didn't believe anything that came out of my mouth that didn't match up with what was on those fliers. Even with the beautiful video that Ken made glaring her in the face she was still chasing me asking the same stupid questions. It was a waist talking to her she was gonna put whatever she wanted in the paper and I had no control over it. The old me would have freaked obsessing over and over again about what to do and how screwed I was but not now. The new me didn't care what Peggy wrote about me cause I didn't have anything to lose. Still it was so annoying having her chase me around the school firing off question after question. The second free period started I shot out of class like a rocket, but amazingly enough Peggy was a few steps behind.

"Amarantha Briggs!" She called after me. God I wish she would stop yelling my full name. I quickly rounded a corner on the second floor but it was a dead end. Crap, Crap, Crap I looked around there was no escape just a window that overlooked the courtyard.

"Hm," one of the trees was close enough that I could reach the branches from where I stood. What the hell was I thinking? I shook the idea out of my head, but then I heard Peggy's footsteps down the hall.

"Amarantha Briggs," she called. Screw it I'll take the chance. I made sure no one was looking- no need for people to think I'm suicidal- and then positioned myself in the window. One, Two, Three I launched myself onto the limb I thought was thick enough to hold me but I was mistaken. The branch crumpled under my weight and I went tumbling down into the tree.

"Ah!" I let out one swift shriek and tumbled head over heels through the branches till I hit one big one that was big enough to hold me. Ugh, I looked to see if anyone noticed. A few people must have heard the shriek heads swiveling around to find the maker but none noticed me or so I thought. A strangely dressed boy with hair that changed from white to black sat under the tree.

"I don't think you'll learn to fly like that," he said in a serious voice.

"I wasn't trying to fly," I groaned in a raspy voice. That's when I realized that this was the boy Castiel wanted to ditch with on my first day.

God it felt like this branch broke my back. I slowly straitened myself out and dropped from the tree. "I was running from a Peggy," I said plopping down next to him. "Ugh," I touched my toes stretching out my back. "Ouch," it cracked but now I felt better. I sighed. "You mind if I stay here?" I asked. I didn't want to spend the rest of free period running from Peggy.

"That's fine," he said he hadn't once looked up from what he was doing. Whatever. My attention was somewhere else. Iris and Violette came out with their lunches. I watched them from afar.

Violette and Iris went out to the courtyard to eat lunch like usual, both worried about Amy. "I should have been faster," Violette said guiltily. She and Iris sat in their normal spot.

"It's okay Violette she'll come," Iris said patting Violette on her head. The truth is when Violette saw Amy this morning she wanted to talk to her right away but because of her shyness Violette didn't know what to say so she went to get Iris. By the time they got back Amy was gone. Violette sigh again looking down. Neither of the girls believed that Amy was that kinda person and though others were looking at her harshly they still wanted to be friend. Amy was so nice. As they sat out there eating Melody, Nathaniel's lab partner comes over.

"Have you seen Amy?" Melody asked. She knew the flyers were lies and after talking to Nathaniel she knew Amber was behind this.

Amy watched the three of them eating wishing she were there.

Ugh I couldn't watch their happy normal life anymore so I tried to crawl away.

"If you want to join them why don't you," the boy asked.

"I'm not very desirable right now," I pouted.

"Oh?" he said lamely.

"I guess you haven't heard about what happened," I was getting down again.

"No," he said calmly.

"Lucky you," that's all I said. I didn't want to go around broadcasting my embarrassment to those who missed it. I wasn't feeling much for conversation and watching the girls all laugh and giggle from afar was making me feel like a stalker plus As punishment I had to go clean up lens fliers from the hall so I crawled around the building to the side entrance to get to work.

"You will not leave until this hallway is clear of all of these papers!" the principal yelled at me. I was given a broom and a trash can and put to work.

"Yes ma'am," I said dejectedly. Ken was a very thorough boy he had entirely covered the hallways with my pictures. This was gonna take forever! And I still hadn't seen Ken all day to apologize. UUUUUUgggggghhhhh! Why did I have to open my big mouth? Ken had been trying to make me happy… like always and I was when I saw the little video I was happy and all the pictures… well that was embarrassing but I wasn't mad at Ken at all till… Ugh I closed my eyes and started pulling the pictures off the wall and sweeping up the pictures that were gathered on the floor without looking at them seriously what was wrong with me. I needed to finish this up fast and find Ken!

I had finished one third of the hallway and was headed for the second section when I found the person I was looking for.

Ken was stooped on the floor neatly stacking all of my pictures. He had finished the last of the hallway and just had a few left to go. "Ken!" I yell unintentionally. He jumped.

"Uh u-um Amy w-what u-uh," he stuttered. Guilt surged I had really freaked him out. He backed away from me unconsciously.

"Wait, don't run away, I didn't mean to yell at you like that earlier. I'm… going through some stuff right now and I directed it at you and that was wrong," I told him sincerely.

He looked down and shook his head. "Everything you said was true, I-"

"NO! It wasn't Ken I was just having a bad day and I unintentionally took it out on you. Ken you are my BEST friend and you have been since like kindergarten. I'm glad you came to this school looking for me I'm glad I have you around. I'm even glad you do these crazy things. I didn't mean to say those thing I am truly lucky that I have a friend like you who has my back," I told him trying to will him into believing it.

"Have your back or hide behind your back," he murmured lowly.

"What?" I asked I couldn't hear him, but he just shook his head.

"Amy my love, one day I will be able to do more than just back you up," he smiled I'll be able to protect you with all of my heart. He added silently.

Finally the dreaded period came honors biology. I was dreading it cause I didn't know what to do about Iris I didn't want to make her have to suffer through having to be my lab partner but there were no more empty seats, but science was my favorite subject unlike math which I was so bad at I had to be placed in remedial class with kids from 9th grade. As I got to the classroom I saw Iris, Violette and Melody waiting for me. Uh oh. Part of me wanted to run from whatever this was but I knew this had to happen sometime. I sighed and walked to my doom.

"A-Amy," Violette came running up first and grabbed my hands. "Are you o-okay," she asked.

"We were worried about you," Iris chimed in.

"What Amber did to you must have really hurt, are you okay," Melody asked.

"What you mean you guys don't believe all that stuff," I asked. I mean as we spoke people in the hall were giving me dirty looks and whispering.

"What of course not," Iris smiled. "Even before we saw today's _announcements _we didn't believe it, but … I didn't know what to say so I waited for you to talk about it,"

"And you didn't show up to lunch," Melody said glancing at Violetta who nodded.

"We didn't want to force you," Iris whispered.

"There's no way we'd buy into all that stuff Amber did," Melody said. Violette just tightened her grip and nodded.

"Even so I don't think I'm someone you girl want to be hanging around. You might be treated coldly to," I warned them.

"No such thing," Melody said reaching into her backpack. "My birthday is next Friday and I'm having a sleepover I want you to come, promise," She said holding out an invitation. Iris and Violette nodded along.

"You're so kind to me, even when I get lost in class," Iris said.

"Y-you haven't done anything to make us avoid you," Violette said.

"We never believed in those rumors one bit," Melody added. I felt like crying.

"Girls Thanks," I said and the bell rung.

After the final bell rung and the day came to an end I finally made my way to the lost and found. I looked at the notebook. I really didn't want to let it go the poems were so beautiful and the really lifted me up, but it wasn't mine. Finally I dropped the notebook in the box. I never did learn what the word Lysander meant. I searched it on the internet but all I got were a lot of pictures of some anime guy. Oh well.

When I got outside I saw Melody and quickly catch up to her.

"Melody," I called. Catching her. I had something important to ask her. She stopped.

"Oh Amy," she smiled

"Hey, um, thanks for today," I said kind of shyly. "I just wanted to ask you something," I paused it felt kinda weird to ask. "Um, why did you decide to be my friend, not that I'm not thankful or anything but why,"

Melody smiled. "Well I felt like something was fishy and when I talked to Nathaniel about it he told me how great you were that I wanted to see for myself," she said with a smile and slight blush. I have a feeling that Natty was someone very special to her. I don't know why but that gave me a pain in the center of my chest.

"Do you like him," I said. It came off a lot angrier than I meant it to but Melody didn't seem to notice. She blushed and looked away. "S-sorry that was a weird question and we just met you don't have to answer," I said waving my hands. "Well this is where I split," I told her coming back to my senses.

"Uh yeah okay," she waved her voice sounded caught in her throat.

Before I looked for a hair salon I walked the familiar way to the tattoo shop. Since the piercings and tattoo were a spur of the moment thing I hadn't brought enough money to pay Sarah I had been trying to think of a way to ask aunt Aggie for the money till I remembered my piggy bank that was stuffed to the brim with 15 years of birthday Christmas and allowance money that I had been too busy to spend. Sarah was manning the desk she smiled at me.

"So how much do I owe you," I said coming in.

"Whoa you can't just come in here looking like your prepped to face the Siberian winter and not expect me to ask questions," she said

"Yeah I went through a bit of temporary insanity the other week and…" I pulled off my hat and showed her my butchered hair.

"Wow what did you do," she said coming around the counter to get a closer look.

"I know, I know that's why I'm here to pay you so I can use the rest of my money to find someone who can fix this," I told her pulling my hair like I could somehow stretch it out to its old length.

Sara tilted my head this way and that. "I think I can help you with this but it's gonna be really short," She said.

I honestly think Sarah can do anything. I looked in the mirror at my new layered A-line bob. To balance out the edgy look of it she bleached my hair to a light pastel pink that kept me girly, and she did it all in the back room sink. "Sarah you know you're seriously a genius," I said hugging her tightly.

"Whoa okay, okay, you're welcome," she said patting me awkwardly.

"How much do I owe you?!" I yelled taking out my piggy I'd give it all to her if she wanted. Sarah doesn't know how much she's saved me. Sarah looked at my piggy bank skeptically.

"Why don't you just pay the 150 for the studs and the tatt when you can and we'll call it even," she sounded like she just wanted me to get out of the shop but I couldn't accept all her help without giving her something.

"No, no you really saved my life here," she did, so I popped the corks on my piggy's belly and pulled out two handfuls of money not even bothering to count it I laid it on the counter. "Thank you, Sarah, thank you!" I said waving goodbye. She let out one hysterical laugh like I was crazy as she started counting my piles of money. I left the shop with the ugly jacket folded under my arm.

That night when I got back to the apartment I couldn't help but think about my old friends. For the first time since the incident I went online and responded to my friends. My inbox was loaded with email after email of my friends worry I was starting to feel guilty about shutting them out. It took hours to go through the year worth emails. I was scrolling through the last of my emails when one caught my eye. It was titled: WELCOME TO LAUGHING MAN. Normally I would just delete this email it was probably spam or something but the date it was sent was the same date as the incident. I stared at the email line for who knows how long, it was just a stupid email but for some reason I felt a sense of fear emanating from it. Like it's a gateway and once I pass through it it'll slam shut and there will be no going back. I closed my eyes held my breath and opened the email… Well there was no explosion no flash light no alien come down to abduct me… So that was good. I opened my eyes and found waiting for me on the screen was a simply laid out email.

Welcome!

You have been nominated to participate in the Laughing Man Trials. A game of truth, lies, revelation and revenge. By opening this email you have accepted your competitors challenge. Within the next week you and your competitor shall both be marked and given a full rule book. But just so you don't K.O. Yourselves before the game begins here are a few basic rules.

No cops – the involvement of police is strictly forbidden breaking this rule will result in an instant termination

You are allowed 5 accomplices- a maximum of five people may help you perform in your part of the game Exceeding this limit will result in an instant termination

Once a person has been included in the game they will permanently be part of the game – no backsies

To win the game you must guess the person who nominated you

After every clue you are aloud to make one guess- with a maximum of 5 guesses you may choose to use or pass on guessing after any challenge

If you can not figure out who your opponent is within the 5 guesses and you opponent can not win according to their perimeters then you both &amp; your accomplices will enter into another game

The removal of your marking band is strictly forbidden and will result in an instant termination

Thank you for your participation and good luck. Let the games begin!

… What the heck. Okay I was officially confused. This was obviously some weird prank or something right. Ugh. I rolled my eyes and exited out of my internet browser when all of a sudden my screen went black. "W-what," I banged furiously on the keys. "No, no, no no, no," nothing. "Come on, please," no it wasn't some practical joke it was some computer virus that shut down my computer. I slammed my head down on my keyboard UGH! I just started replying to people again and this is what I get. I sighed to myself when an ear splitting sound busted from the computer making me jump. "Ah,"I squeezed. I looked at the still black screen but it wasn't all black. In white letters spelled across the screen were the letters S-M-I-L-E, "smile?" The second I said that the flash on my web cam went off and a picture of me looking confused pope on the screen. A red grid slid over my picture.

"Facial recognition complete," my computer said. I jumped back. What the hell was happening? "Amarantha Briggs, age: 15, height: 5'2," weight: 120 pounds, location," it started reading off line after line of personal info my old school my new school every relative I stayed with this past year everything was there. How did it know it's not like any of that information was on my laptop. It's not like I went around putting my height in my diary… And I do not weigh 120 pounds! It listed insanely personal things like my medical history not just from the incident but from way back to the time I got chickenpox when I was 3. At the end of this invasion of my privacy my laptop flashed the words welcome . Would you like to make a guess? It showed me a blank space to put my answer in… Someone that nominated me for this game. One name came to mind. A-m-b-e-r and ENTER… The screen went completely black again for a moment… "Incorrect" it flashed with a flashing sad face with x's over the eyes. My 5 dashed to 4 and my screen went back to normal. I closed it immediately what the hell was that!? I shoved my laptop under my bed. Yeah like that actually did something. Then I got ready for bed.

As I took a shower panic started to hit me. What the hell was that? How did it know all that information about me? What should I do? Call the police? But that was rule 1 don't involve the police. So what at means I lose the game big deal these people have been stalking me! Disputes the fact that I was showering in steaming hot water I got a cold shiver. Maybe I' ask aunt Aggie what to do she should know? All of a sudden it really creepy to be in the apartment alone. After my shower I got dressed like an 6th grader after gym class with my towel still wrapped firmly around me. I sat in a ball waiting for aunt Aggie to get home but the silence was driving me crazy. It was almost 1:00 so calling anyone to chat was out but maybe one person wouldn't let me down, he never has before. I grabbed aunt Aggie's old sell phone. She had just changed plans and got a new one so until my cell came back from being fixed I was using this one. I flipped the relic open and started texting the one person that never let me down.

_Hey you up?_ I typed. With in 2 minutes ken texted me back.

_Yeah are you okay? _He texted back.

_I'm fine just can't sleep._

_You're lying._

_What no I'm not – _I started to type but ken was faster.

_I know you Amy I know when you're lying what's wrong?_

_Nothing I'm just a little freaked out, I'm home alone and the house is super quiet._

_Should I come over?_

_No I don't even live that close anymore, just talk to me would you?_

_As long as you want :) _

_Thanks I can always count on you :)_

_Anytime my love._


End file.
